Fame
So many times people come up to me and ask; "Why aren't you more famous?" Sometimes you just have to make good choices and maybe let fame and fortune suffer accordingly. The super-mega-giant entertainment mogul, wanted to manage me. He'd call me a lot. Finally I asked him; "What are you going to offer me?" He responded: "I will make you one million dollars in the first year." So I says; "That sounds great but what will I need to do for that?" When it became clear that Siegel-Schwall's schedule would go from our own beautiful, fun, comfortable, 3 nights per week limit to a year of one nighters trying to scoop up more bars of gold, it didn't sound like a good idea. And he was already talking to me about who would be in the band (which honestly made me cry out loud). Also I'd be living vicariously through another person's desires and integrity, and it was clear that this person only had room for desire. We would be empowering him to treat people the way he treated people (unfairly, unkindly) and in our name. Siegel-Schwall was already having tons of fun and making plenty of money on our own.
Smoke Get's Sin Your Eyes
Another time we turned some big music fellow down because we just didn't like him blowing his cigar smoke in our faces. The music business friend Bill Traut one time was quoted in the Tribune as saying; "Corky Siegel is a great person as a human being but not so smart as a rock star." LOL! Welcome to the music business! LOL!
Bollywisdom
Kavita Krishnamurti, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Me and Holly
I was explaining all this to my dear friend Bollywood star Kavita. And I added: "When I'm in a restaurant I will look around and think; 'I wonder if anyone recognizes me?' LOL! Then every so often someone will come up and say; 'Corky, I love your work.' And that's all a sad ego should ever need. I'm never swamped, and I can live my life in private or public without concern. The world has given me a perfect balance where I've received all the recognition a reasonable person could ever ask for, and yet I have my privacy and freedom." Kavita exclaimed; "We call that 'PLEASANTLY FAMOUS."
The real challenge in life is to be happy. It's much easier to become rich and famous. But you do sometimes have to sacrifice some things to be happy.