How Are Fleetwood Mac, Adele and Your Problems Alike?

I was exercising at the gym this morning and “Big Love” by Fleetwood Mac came on my iPod.  I was about the change it when I decided to listen.  Lindsay Buckingham’s guitar skills on that song are amazing.  When I was listening and doing bent-over-barbell-pulls, it struck me as ironic that two of my favorite albums came from dark places for the artists.  Then, I thought, maybe their stories can be an inspiration for others. 

In October 1997, Fleetwood Mac appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone (issue 772) with the headline “The Lovingest, Fightingest, Druggingest Band of the ‘70s Comes Back”.  It detailed their meteoric rise to success and fame, the drugs, jealousy, cheating and anger that came with that success and fame and their ultimate (temporary) break up.  Twenty years after the rollercoaster started, they were back on top and about to release their Grammy Award winning album The Dance.  At the height of the negativity, they created arguably one of the greatest albums of all time.  That album, Rumors, was created when the two couples of the band, Buckingham & Nicks and John & Christine McVie, were in the middle of breaking up.  Drugs, fighting and cheating were everywhere.  There were times when some thought the album wouldn’t happen. 

Despite everything working against them, much of it their own doing, they persevered.  They stuck it out, got back up when they fell and were more focused on the end result than the present situation.

Adele’s relationship with a man ten years older ended around April 2009.  Adele seemingly put more stock in this relationship than her partner.  When they eventually broke up after he heard the first recording, “Take it All”, for her new album 21, she was apparently devastated.  Not being one to let a bad situation ruin her, she channeled her emotion into writing new music for her upcoming album.  When the album was released in January 2011, no one could have known the success that was about to come.  Winning both a Grammy and a BRIT Award, the album topped the charts in over 30 countries for both 2011 and 2012.   Your humble bloggers will even go out on a limb and say 21 will be the top album of the ‘10s (is that what we’re calling this decade?). 

What does all this have to do with me, you say?  If you’re drowning in debt or money problems is ruining your relationship, or you’re dealing with other personal struggles, and you don’t see a chance of recovering, consider these success stories.  They aren’t the only stories out there about a group of people or a person hitting a low point and using that low point as a springboard to success.  Use your fear, your anger, your frustration or whatever emotion(s) you have to inspire you to success.  Whatever your financial problems, whatever your problems, you can overcome them and the outcome will be better than you can imagine. 

We had over $51,000 worth of credit card debt and were living in a basement.  Rather than resigning ourselves to failure, we did what we had to do to climb out of debt, buy a home, and increase our travel and retirement savings.  If all these people can turn failure into success, so can you. 

Is that corny enough for you?