This weekend, while driving up to Clarksville for our weekly food shopping trip, I decided to switch the Sirius Radio channel from The Highway (where they play the same 10 non-country, country songs in an endless loop) to The 80’s on 8. I don’t know if you remember, but the 80s probably invented the term “one-hit wonder.”
As I listened, it seemed as if every other song was indeed a one-hit wonder. While the 80s gave us Madonna, Michael Jackson (the Thriller and Bad version), Prince, Journey, and Huey Lewis & The News, there were also the one-hit wonders Thomas Dolby, Spandau Ballet, Dexys Midnight Runners, Flock of Seagulls, A-Ha, Tommy Tutone, Soft Cell, Toni Basil, Modern English, Bow Wow Wow, Kajagoogoo, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Gary Numan, Animotion, Big Country, Nena, Dead or Alive, Michael Sembello, Musical Youth, Cutting Crew, Rockwell, Eddy Grant, Stacy Q, John Parr, The Vapors, Madness, Bobby McFerrin, Quarterflash, John Waite, The Waitresses, Tom Tom Club, Weather Girls, Lipps, Inc., Matthew Wilder, The Buggles, Billy Vera, Timbuk 3, Shannon, Robbie Nevil, The Hooters, Samantha Fox, Georgia Satellites, Yello, Wall of Voodoo, Neneh Cherry, After the Fire, Mary Jane Girls, Taco, OMD, Till Tuesday, Chris DeBurgh, The Outfield, Nu Shooz, XTC, Boomtown Rats, Peter Schilling, Bertie Higgins, Paul Lekakis, Club Nouveau, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds (I think I just set a record for the longest sentence ever written!).
Wow, what a list! One and done.
But I think we all have the potential to be one-hit wonders too. After all, we probably know at least one person who peaked in high school or college, right? But in our professional lives, this is a risk too.
Years ago when I was in the Navy, I had someone check in to my clinic who started out on fire. She was a go-getter and really impressed us. But slowly, after a few months, that fire fizzled out. We didn’t get the high level of performance anymore. She was indeed a one-hit wonder.
The danger of being good at something is success. Success has only one step above it: continued success. If your favorite NFL team wins the Superbowl, they are utter failures if they don’t repeat the following year. Success has to be repeated in order to mean anything.
When was your last win?
If it was longer than a year ago, maybe it’s time to get busy looking for more. Even though those 80s one-hit wonders still get their one hit played, it’s mostly done for nostalgia. And even though those aging musicians still get asked to play it in concerts in small clubs, county fairs, and musical wastelands like Branson, it’s still not a true measurement of what could have been.
This week, let’s all do a check on our current personal and professional development strategy. Regardless of age or stage, I believe we all have something more to contribute. Personally, I’m not ready yet to be evaluated on what I’ve already accomplished. I have more in the tank and I’ll bet you do too.