Today is June 5 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “What keeps you going?”
Successful people who navigate the chaos understand what keeps them going through the trials and tribulations involved with translating their dreams into reality.
In an April 2017 Vogue interview, American singer and songwriter Katy Perry said that “I had so much ambition and determination and that’s what kept me going” through her false starts, cancelled recording deals and ten years of working through the music scene to break through.
At nine years of age Perry starting singing with parents’ ministry in church. During the early stages of her career, Perry's musical style gravitated towards gospel.
In 1999, at the age of 15, she moved to Nashville, signed to Christian music label Red Hill and released first album.
Two years later she left for Los Angeles and worked on an album for Island Records but later got dropped. As a teenager she heard Queen's "Killer Queen," which inspired her to pursue a career in music.
She cites the band's frontman, Freddie Mercury, as her biggest influence and expressed how the "combination of his sarcastic approach to writing lyrics and his 'I don't give a fuck' attitude" inspired her music.
At the age of 20 she signed with Columbia Records and then dropped her from the label.
At the age of 23 she signed with Capitol Music Group and one year later released her breakthrough hit “I Kissed a Girl” on May 6, 2008. She followed up that hit with “Teenage Dream” in July 2010 and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, becoming Perry's third nomination in the category.
American author George A. Sheehan noted “Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” Perry used her ambition and determination to keep her going. What keeps you going?