When I was in high school band, a few members of the wind ensembles were borrowed to play with the string ensembles to make a full orchestra. If there was a certain member that was playing in the full orchestra was absent, someone else would need to step in for rehearsals and in dire situations, the performances! Whenever this situation would happen, the orchestra director would always share the story of Leonard Bernstein with us.
Leonard Bernstein, the iconic composer and conductor that is known for writing the score for West Side Story, rose to fame from a random opportunity. On November 14th 1943, New York Philharmonic conductor Bruno Walter was under the weather and could not conduct. That night, Leonard Bernstein was given the opportunity to fill in and conduct the orchestra. His conducting was a huge hit, and everyone enjoyed the concert. Bernstein took the opportunity that was presented with him and rose to the occasion.
A couple weeks ago, I was driving to teach Tang Soo Do at my Studio in downtown Chicago with my brother when we realized that we had forgotten the belt and other promotion materials for a student that had tested for his new rank, but was about to move out of state. Since we had to promote him that day with no other opportunities to do so, my brother and I had to turn around to get his belt. In doing this, it would make us 10-15 minutes late for class. We reached out to a student that had just received his 3rd Dan and instructed him to begin class in the event that we were not there in time. When we arrived, this student had not only warmed up the students, but he also began going over basic techniques. This student is only 19 years old, but he did such a great job giving nuanced advice for certain techniques and had a great command of the group. I reached out to him after class to let him know that he had done a good job, and mentioned that he had a higher teaching IQ than I did at his age. Needless to say, we will be using this student to instruct in higher leverage situations in the future since he rose to the occasion and did a great job.
There are other times I see some black belts receive spontaneous opportunities to fill in in various situations and decline! Sometimes they decline for very legitimate reasons. Most of the time, these students will get another opportunity to step up, but there are some who simply haven’t come into conversation for opportunities. I often wonder what would have happened if instead of declining the opportunity to fill in, they had accepted the opportunity! Would Leonard Bernstein have had such an iconic career if he declined his opportunity? The world will never know.
I think we all have a Westside Story in us as martial artists, working professionals and people in general. We simply need to accept opportunities when they are presented to us. These opportunities may come by surprise to us, but if we make the decision to prioritize and accept these opportunities, we can earn the trust and respect of those around us to receive more opportunities in the future.
