The Voice of Tigger Dies

I was saddened to learn that Paul Winchell passed away June 26th. He is best known as the voice of Tigger on the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. For over six decades, he was a master ventriloquist, brining dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff to life on television. He was also an inventor who held 30 patents, including one for an early artificial heart that he built in 1963.

He contracted polio at age 6. In his biography, Winch, Winchell describes himself as a shy child with a speech impediment who was frequently beaten by his overbearing mother. He found sanctuary from his often grim home life by listening to the radio, especially the comedy of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, whom Winchell began to emulate after buying a book on ventriloquism at age 12. When he began trying out his act on classmates, using a dummy he constructed as a school art project, the socially awkward youth discovered that his talent made him popular for the first time. He found a true passion. And, as he learned to throw his voice, he gradually overcame his speech impediment.

This is someone who truly embraced his “limits” and used them as a source of power. His ventriloquism and voices entertained the world. As he once wrote on his website when he first learned to throw his voice, “Suddenly I had found my place in the sun.” It’s hard to believe that a man who was the voice of Tigger, Gargamel in “The Murfs”, and Boomer in “The Fox and the Hound”, once stuttered.

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Email from Visitor

I received the following email from a visitor to the website…

“I took a Goal Setting course in 1989. I reached one financial goal. Did not reach the others. Since 1989 life often interfered with my goal setting. Many of the twist and turns were painful, however I learned many lessons and because of those experiences my life if much richer. Goal Setting is over rated. Should I enjoy a wonderful Saturday reading and working in the garden or should I get down on myself because I wasted a Saturday by not ‘moving toward a goal?’ I’d rather enjoy just my Saturday. One day I decided to write down the happiest moments of my life. They included swimming under a waterfall, giving a speech in the Boy Scouts, playing the guitar, and dating my girl friend the summer after college. Not one of these happy events was the result of setting a goal!”

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Create Many Paths

I am putting the finishing touches on the manuscript for Goal-Free Living. During the editing process, a lot of material has been left on the cutting room floor. From time to time, I will post some of these materials, starting with this one here. This piece talks about my cross-country trip, and a relatively long non-stop stretch from Atlanta to New Orleans. Eight hours alone in the car. I had plenty of time to think and reflect across vast reaches of land. I turned on my digital tape recorder and rambled some thoughts. I call this “The Road (I Wish Were) Less Traveled.”

On virtually empty two-lane highways, a few cars and trucks move quickly from one place to another. But do the drivers take time to look out the window and see what is around them? Or are they focused on constantly moving from point to point? Where is everyone going in such a rush?

My original objective was to use my drive time as an opportunity to listen to the tapes of the interviews I conducted and to take notes in my digital recorder. But I find my mind wandering during these vast stretches of nothingness. It is difficult to stay focused mentally. And maybe that was a good thing. Keeping busy during a trip is not the same thing as being in the moment. Allowing my mind to wander can in fact be an example of what it means to “be in the moment.” We often try and keep ourselves busy to avoid the thoughts in our heads. But creativity and clarity can emerge when the head is clear. Rather than cramming more into our grey matter, maybe we need time to empty our minds and create space.

In the distance I see a backup of cars and trucks. As I approach, the traffic begins to clog. I quickly go from zipping along at the speed limit to major congestion and barely crawling. How can this be? There were no cars on the road for many miles. I see a sign. “Construction 2 miles ahead.” Traffic slows further as people merge into one lane. This is a metaphor for life itself. We are often moving quickly along the highway of life, then when you least expect it, you hit a roadblock. If you are on a path that does not allow you to deviate, and others are on the same path, you have no choice but to wait in line with everyone else moving towards the same destination. This is what happened with the dot com boom followed by the dot bomb bust. Everyone was on the same highway (the superhighway) moving at breakneck speed, only to find that a speed bump in the road brought everyone and the economy to a screeching halt. What if, instead of designing your life as a highway leading to a goal you’re trying to reach, think of it as an ocean. When I was in Miami on a boat on the Atlantic Ocean, I was amazed at how few boats there were in the water. An ocean of choice stretched out before me. When you have limitless paths to take, there is a comfortable fluidity. There is more pleasure. And as you are on a different path than everyone else, you don’t get stuck in life’s traffic.

When yachting through your “open seas”, use a compass as your guide. Constantly readjust to make sure that you are tracking properly, as winds, rough seas, and other vessels can throw you off course. Make your adjustments in real time, in the moment. Feel free to travel off the beaten path. There are no real destinations in life, despite what you may have been taught from an early age.

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Embrace Your Limits

A little more than a week ago, I was giving a friend a piggy-back ride. I lost my balance and fell forward on the sidewalk – with the weight of my friend falling on my head. Rather than my hands breaking my fall, my nose broke my fall…and my nose broke in the process. I have a huge gash on my nose and upper lip. A dozen stitches later, I look like Frankenstein’s ugly brother. While waiting 6 hours in the emergency room for the plastic surgeon, I contemplated the coming days and weeks. A time which would be a real test of my ability to “Embrace my limits.”

My looks were my shadow side – one of my limits. We may not want to admit it, but in our society, looks do matter. And I always had a deeply rooted belief that my looks contributed to and were critical to my successes in life. So, throughout my life, I lived in fear of the day when my looks — and hence my success — would vanish. That day is now here. When I look in the mirror I don’t see me anymore. Only bruises, gashes, stitches, dried blood, and open wounds.

A few days after the accident, I decided that I was well enough to venture out into the real world. I wandered down to a local nightclub. Rather than trying to hide my face, I walked in proud and confident. When people asked what happened, I would share with them the story. I definitely was not looking for sympathy. I wanted to be treated just the way I had always been treated. And I was. What I realized is that these bumps and bruises have not changed me in any substantial way. In fact they have freed me. Freed me from a hidden (and unhealthy) vanity that used to drive me at a subconscious level. This doesn’t mean I will no longer care about my looks. It only means that I am freed from the pressure of having to look good.

By recognizing and embracing your limits – the things that have a stranglehold on you – you can free yourself to be who you really are. When you do this, you realize that no matter what happens, no one can take away the real you.

Update September 15. My face is healing quickly and I am almost back to my “original” looks. In case you don’t know what I look like, click here

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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, recently gave a commencement speech at Stanford University. It is the story of his life. He describes why dropping out of college led to the design of the computer interface as we know it today. Why getting fired by Apple the first time led to the creation of Pixar Studios (creators of Toy Story).

And how his close encounters with death led him to say, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. ”

His closed with four words from the back cover of the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Great words of wisdom from a great innovator.

To read the entire speech, go to http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

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