Strange And Wonderful Things

Hey Guys,

We all have our ups and downs and sometimes we get stuck in the monotony of everyday life. But, we have hope. If there is anything we can learn from Elvis, it is this: strange and wonderful things can happen, even when you least expect them.

Sounds like the kind of thing you’d read in Charles Dickens or J. K. Rowling, huh (hey, what’s wrong with Harry Potter, after all?). Of course, you’re probably thinking right now that there’s a difference between the wishful imaginations of fiction writers and reality.

Well sure, we don’t have magic wands (or evil wizards trying to murder us), nor does life tie up quite as nicely as it does in a novel. But still, amazing stuff can happen − and it does!

Take Elvis: I can’t overestimate the unlikeliness of a poor kid from Mississippi becoming anything notable, let alone one of the greatest, most influential, well-loved individual in popular music.

I mean, so Elvis could sing, and well. He sang his heart out in the after-hours of his truck job. He kept singing. And then POOF!!! Positive things started happening. Like more people starting asking for his autograph. And more people came to his shows. And there were more requests for his records to be played on radio.

It wasn’t an overnight switch from poverty to riches, but it happened.

After all, if it could happen to him, why couldn’t it happen to you?

Now, before I sign off for another week, I’d like to talk about a second, wonderful thing that happened in Elvis’s life. One that didn’t tarnish (like his marriage) and that was uniquely his (unlike Graceland with its 600,000 visitors a year). I’m talking about the ’68 Comeback Special.

Yes, you’ve heard me talk about it before and I will continue to talk about it until I’ve got off my mind how awesome it was (and drummed into yours how awesome it was).

Elvis is in a dip. His movies aren’t selling the way they used to. Generally, the only tracks he records are for movies and they don’t compare to the ones coming out of the British Invasion from bands like the Who, Stones, Beatles or Kinks. I mean, musically Elvis was becoming a has-been. And, especially in the 60’s, that was no title to wear proudly.

So, Elvis decides he wants to do a show. The Colonel, Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager, wants Elvis to sing Christmas carols exclusively. Elvis doesn’t like that idea much and neither does the show’s producer and director, Steve Binder, so they decide that he sing some of his old songs mixed with some new ones.

You’ve got to understand the importance of this. Elvis’s film career looked like it was coming to an end, and soon. What does an out of work rock star do when he doesn’t have a film career or a music career (correct: they write a book). What was Elvis going to do? Go back to his electrician apprenticeship? Start driving a truck?

Elvis was in serious trouble of death by boredom, and he knew it.

But the rest is history. Elvis, out of some marvelous whim of fate, made a full comeback and did some of his most impressive work, including Suspicious Minds, afterwards.

Now, don’t let me give you the idea that it just happened. I’m a serious Ben Obi Wan Kenobi fan, especially when he says, “In my experience there is no such thing as luck. Elvis worked for it and he got it. Does it always work that way? Heck no. But it can. Both in the very beginning and during the Comeback Special, Elvis worked for success. And when you work for success something wonderful and unexpected happens − opportunities present themselves that you didn’t even know existed, the Law of Attraction works in your favour and you make history.

Elvis’s Lessons:

Ø Sometimes, wonderful and unexpected turns of fate happen, often when you don’t expect them. Oftentimes, even the direst situations have their ways of turning around. But you tend to have to work to get out of the rut. Diving into depression won’t help you but being proactive will. Get your own Comeback Special organized and get kicking. It worked for Elvis and if it worked for him, then why not you? And if you seriously do a show, send me an invitation. I’d love to see you rise like a Phoenix.

P.S. If you'd like to see some more Elvis from the life-changing '68 Comeback Special, here's a Youtube clip of him singing "Baby What Do You Want Me to Do" from the 'unplugged' segment of the show.

P.P.S. I've love to hear your feedback and stories. Please leave a comment or email me at alexghilson@gmail.com to continue the conversation.

Cool Down!

Hey Guys,

Thanks for tuning into Graceland, Ontario for another week of Elvis-teaches-success awesomeness!

This week I’m going to talk about something a bit more qualitative than I tend to. No names or dates being dropped here. But it will do wonders for you once you put it into action.

This week’s article is inspired by an article I read in John Alanis’s daily newsletter. John Alanis, for those of you who don’t know, is a direct marketer and a seller of attraction guides for men with unsatisfactory romance lives. His daily newsletters deal with the problems men create when they show unattractive behaviours to women and what men can do about it. Needless to say, reading it is always a highlight of my day.

In the article I read a couple days ago, Alanis points out that people buy Apple Ipads not for functionality, but because they’re cool. Not only that, people will actually buy expensive Ipads year after, despite limited use, to be considered cool. And more than this, no copies of the Ipad are considered half as cool as it is. And they flop, consistently, trying.

It kind of reminded me of something my Mum and Uncle once said about the fashion climate in England, where they came from. They said that it was always changing, not only annually but seasonally, too. And if you didn’t have the latest gear, well, you weren’t quite in vogue. You weren’t quite cool.

Now John Alanis, Apple Ipad’s and English clothes got me thinking: why do people like Elvis? I mean, he did have a great voice and watching him onstage was incredible but there’s something more than that, a reason why people have followed him even after death.

He’s cool.

Simple as that. Even when there were these other acts back in the fifties, like Eddie Cochran, trying to take his fame. Elvis was cool. It’s not that Cochran or Buddy Holly weren’t, but though they were newer, they couldn’t take away the King’s electricity.

And even in the late sixties, when the Beatles were rocking the world with the White Album, or in the early 70’s when Led Zeppelin was out. The only reason Elvis could compete was he was as cool as they were.

I mean, he had the clothes, he had the looks, he had the shades. People wanted to, and still want to be, like Elvis. They are more interested in taking a share in his coolness than trying to be cool themselves. Perhaps they think it’s harder being cool when you can simply use someone else’s cool persona.

They’ve got part of the idea right, about emulation, but not the part about lack of identity (I must write an article on identity soon). You see, like the Ipad, copying something cool directly won’t work. It’ll make you look like a copy and people will think that you aren’t genuinely cool, only pretending to be.

So, how do you be cool? As John Alanis writes, you simply state it. You state it and you don’t sweat the small stuff and you act cool. You know what cool is. You’ve been brought up with it. And you certainly know that Elvis was it. You only have to act like it and you will be it. It’s subconscious.

And once you’re cool, well, you’ve changed the ball game. Now, like Elvis, you will be the one people want to emulate, the go-to person in the group, the people your friends want to be like. All of a sudden there’s something about you that is so appealing, so attractive, yet others can only imitate it, or mirror it. You’ll have that edge that no one else can portray like you. You’ll be different.

You’ll be cool.

Elvis’s Lessons:

Ø Take it from Elvis, and John Alanis − be cool. People will flock to you when you are unique in a group of people. But how do you be cool? State it. Once you declare (to yourself, not to the world) that you are cool, people will feel your vibe and subconsciously agree with it, or be jealous. It sure as heck worked with Elvis. Why don’t you give it a try today?

P.S. If you want to see an example of Elvis being cool, here he is joking about during a press conference prior to his Madison Square Garden concerts in 1972 (Youtube video).

P.P.S. If you're interested in some of John Alanis's attraction products, here's a link to his site.