A Word from Paul Potts

What DO you do when your Life Changes in an instant?   by Paul Potts

28 Mar

 

It’s incredible to think that it is already five years since I performed at Cardiff’s Millenium Centre in front of Simon Piers and Amanda.  in some ways it feels like yesterday and in some ways it feels like 50 years ago.  It’s difficult to put into words exactly what happens to you in this situation.  One minute I was strolling around in my badly fitting suit (and yes my Tesco suit is still hung up in my wardrobe upstairs, it fits me even worse now!) and next I found myself on a plane to New York just a day or two after the show.

What was I thinking?  I’m not sure I know! It was such a whirlwind especially as the whole show in my year was over with in a single week, and since then I have never stopped living each day from one to the next, thanking my lucky stars that an opportunity I never dreamed would come to me had suddenly jumped in front of me thanks to a lucky ten pence piece.

 

 

in a sense I was fortunate that the show was over in such a short space of time as Susan Boyle who had to wait weeks until it came to the live shows and that obviously put her and other contestants under a lot of pressure.  It did mean, however that I had to learn to adapt, and fast!  My job before the show was to sell mobile phones, but suddenly I found myself in front of many cameras having to sell myself in front of cameras and reporters.  For me this was a sink or swim moment.  Either I would not cope with pressure or I would adapt and deal with it.  Thankfully I managed to adapt, but I never knew for sure whether I would.  Of course it was all exciting, I could feel I was on the cusp of something very special, but I could also feel that things were different.  Now every thing I said and did mattered.

I enjoyed my job before the show, and I was committed to my career as a manager and team leader at Carphone Warehouse, but at the end of the day, if I missed a few sales, internally I would shrug my shoulders and say “Ah well, tomorrow’s another day”.  Now things are different.  Every performance matters.  I have performed over 400 full length concerts in the last five years, and I remember each and every one.  I also remember every missed note and mistake.  I remember feeling completely overwhelmed when I started my World Tour in 2008.  The most performances I had ever done before in a year were 15.  Now I had 55 concerts to do in four months and I didn’t know how the hell I was going to do it.  Another sink or swim moment. I was scared witless and struggled to hide it.  The tour started and it took a while for me to really settle in.  My nerves were shot and a really negative newspaper review by someone who didn’t stay for the things he reviewed most didn’t help.  I did, however, finally find myself swimming rather than sinking and I gradually became more confident and started to really enjoy my performances.  It was then that the tension was released and I started to sing better and better.

 

 

The Lesson? You never know what you are able to cope with until you put yourself to the test.  Yes it involves taking risks, and risks are scary things.  Very scary things when you don’t have a great deal of confidence in yourself.  So what happened in 2008? In a year where I was scheduled to perform 55 full length concerts, I ended up performing at well over a hundred concerts, almost double what was forecast at the start of the year in front of more than a quarter of a million paying customers.  It’s quite scary when you realise that people are paying to watch YOU perform.

This year’s Britain’s Got Talent has already started, and there are a number of stand out acts in the first show. Two stand out in particular for me so far, Sam Kelly with his fantastic rendition of Adele’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’.  To make something your own in the way that he did is very special.  It’s the sign of a genuine artist.  Secondly of course is Jonathon Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli.  At only 17 years of age, Jonathon has a very well developed voice, although at 17 he still has a lot of development to do and I’m not sure whether he will be a dramatic tenor (think Otello, etc) or a rich baritone.  His voice could go either or both ways, tenors like Placido Domingo have proved that before now.  Charlotte has a very nice voice although the edit didn’t allow us to hear a lot of her part of the wonderful song that is The Prayer.  Hopefully we will get to hear more of Charlotte as the competition goes on.

Already Jonathon and Charlotte are being asked whether they will be having a makeover for the finals or for whatever comes after.  This is a very familiar question to me.  I was asked several times whether I would have a makeover, and if I was going to have my teeth done.  I certainly wasn’t about to have surgery to artificially improve myself or to ‘shed pounds’.  In the end I decided to have my teeth dealt with as the broken bridge and untidy teeth made me feel uncomfortable and unattractive and made me feel like a freak show.  I’ve been asked many times why I got rid of my USP (Ultimate selling point) – my bad teeth.  The reason?  I wanted to.  Not because I thought they would instantly make me handsome, but because I wanted to feel better about myself. 

So I’ve noticed that Jonathon and Charlotte have been singled out for the same questioning.So what should they do?  So far they have said no to any kind of makeover, and that’s neither wrong nor right.  What I would say is this: Don’t not change just because your afraid of changing.  You will hold yourself back.  You need to develop as a person and this may involve certain parts of you changing too as you develop as a person.  The thing about bullying is that it is often treated as something simple that ‘everyone’ goes through.  However, it is a form of abuse and in the end all abuse is about the same thing: power.  Jonathon: the boot is on the other foot now: you have the power to make your own decisions now and to really change your life.  Make them for YOUR benefit and the benefit of those you care about.  Make changes that YOU want to make and stick by your guns.  I noticed the bullying continue on twitter on Saturday evening and it’s easy for others to tell you to just ignore it.  I know from experience that it’s easier said than done.  Just remember that it’s because you have something special that you are singled out and that no matter what they throw at you, you always have your voice and your music to be there for you.  No-one can take that away from you no matter what happens.  

To everyone out there that is willing Jonathon and Charlotte on, all power to you, but let’s allow Jonathon and Charlotte enjoy the rest of the competition without undue stress and pressure.  The competition has only just begun, and there are many acts we haven’t seen.  Let’s give them all a chance and enjoy all their talents and allow all of them to make the most of their opportunity.  

That lesson again: You never know what you are capable of until you REALLY test yourself.  Every contestant is doing that in every competition in the world, every employee does this in every day work and every parent does it when they bring up their children.  We ALL have untapped potential, and you can only access that when you take a risk. I am now preparing for my fourth album, and that is something I never dreamed I would say.