Trusting Your Instincts and Having Faith in Yourself

This week, 7/27-7/31, Tavis Smiley, on his eponymous PBS show, has been doing a weeklong series on Motown. This year marks Motown's 50Th Anniversary. He started out the week with Berry Gordy, who founded Motown after securing an $800 loan from his family on Jan. 12, 1959. In a 2008 interview with Billboard.com Gordy said:

"I've been fighting to protect the legacy for 50 years, and now it seems that after 50 years we can go and talk about the real deal, what really happened ... and how it happened, my story and everything that goes with it. And I'm just thrilled that I'm here to enjoy now what I couldn't enjoy while I was doing it."

This week Smiley spoke with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the married songwriters/singers of such hits as "Solid" and "You're All I Need to Get By." They spoke to him about Berry Gordy asking them to change one of their songs, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Gordy said he wouldn't release it as a single off of Diana Ross' solo album unless they changed it to suit how he wanted it to sound. After all, he was the architect of "The Motown Sound." They said, "No. It'll change the song too much." Instead, Gordy released "Reach Out and Touch" off of Diana Ross' solo album, which only reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Deejays started playing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" instead. It went to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and garnered a Grammy nomination. The album, which was originally called, "Diana Ross," was released again as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Ashford and Simpson never said, "I told you so." Berry Gordy never mentioned it.

In this case, Berry Gordy was wrong and Ashford and Simpson were right. But, I'm sure Mr. Gordy was right more often than wrong. Ashford and Simpson went away after being advised by Gordy that he wanted something different. They thought about it for two days and stuck with the vision they had for the song. I'm sure they were frightened of the repercussions and I'm sure they had to make compromises before. But, for them, this was worth standing up for.

In life, we have to be able to trust and assert our instincts, even if they turn out to be wrong and even if we're scared. We have to stand in our truth and be willing to accept the consequences either way. That's faith; the assured expectation of things to come. The evident demonstration of realities though not beheld. -- Hebrews 11:1

Love and peace to anyone who may read this and have a great weekend!

"Gordy Guiding Motown's 50th Anniversary," Gary Graff http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/gordy-guiding-motown-s-50th-anniversary-1003920014.story#/bbcom/news/gordy-guiding-motown-s-50th-anniversary-1003920014.story

"Tavis Smiley" show archives: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200907/20090730.html#