Today is February 9 and the Navigating the Chaos question to consider is “How do you respond when no one is watching?”
Those who navigate the chaos like Charles Edward Ives understand the value of performing when no one is watching.
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer and widely regarded as one of the first American composers of international significance.
Unfortunately Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years.
To support his family he maintained a long career in the insurance business.
As Ives put it, if a composer “has a nice wife and some nice children, how can he let them starve on his dissonances?”
Encouraged by his father to experiment with music, Ives became a church organist at the age of 14, and wrote various hymns and songs for church services.
After graduating from Yale in 1898, he secured a position in New York as a $15-a-week clerk with the Mutual Life Insurance Company.
In 1899, Ives moved to employment with the insurance agency Charles H. Raymond & Co., where he stayed until 1906.
In 1907, upon the failure of Raymond & Co., he and his friend Julian Myrick formed their own insurance agency Ives & Co., which later became Ives & Myrick, where he remained until he retired.
He achieved considerable fame in the insurance industry with many of his business peers surprised to learn that he was also a composer.
In his spare time he composed music and, until his marriage, worked as an organist in Danbury and New Haven as well as Bloomfield, New Jersey and New York City.
Although his music was largely ignored during his life, Ives continued to make music and worked a day job to support his family.
No one was looking yet he committed himself to excellence.
Legendary basketball coach John Wooden observed "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching."
As you go about your day, consider asking yourself, If no one is watching you are you still working hard? If no one is watching you perform are you still committed to excellence?
This Navigate the Chaos post is part of the Stand category that includes the following entries: