Overnight Success

When I was younger I played drums in a punk rock band called The Outpulse.

We covered the Foo Fighters and The Offspring and wrote a few of our own songs that could get people into the mosh pit. We had a few groupies here and there.

In our prime we played probably 20 or 30 shows a year at rock venues and basements and bowling alleys and municipal parks throughout southern Minnesota.

We even weaseled our way into playing the side stage of the hallowed First Avenue in Minneapolis — where acts like Prince, The Replacements, Hippo Campus, and Soul Asylum got their start — as an opening act when I was 16.

(Which was funny because First Ave is an 18+ venue, so after our set we had to pack up our stuff and listen to the rest of the acts from outside because we were underage.)

After that show, a local studio offered to cut us a deal to record an EP at a dirt cheap rate. We sold a few hundred of them, maybe made a $1,000 bucks total. It was awesome.

But after awhile I got to the age where playing in a band on the weekends started to interfere with other parts of my life — I cared a lot about my classes and wanted to play sports. Eventually it came to the classic ultimatum: pick the band or school and sports.

I chose the school and sports.

The rest of the band stayed together and reinvented themselves over the years. These days they’re touring the country under the new name Gramma.

Just a few months ago their second full-length album was ranked in the Star Tribune’s top 10 records of 2024. They’re now being heralded as a new, up-and-coming band to watch in the Midwest.

And to be honest, I’m really really happy for them.

Because it wasn’t an overnight success. It took them 10+ years of playing and recording and dedication and improvement to get that recognition.

Lots of failures and dead-ends and people like me coming and going and scrappy-ness and loose-change-rent-payments and just “doing what you can with what you got”. Seeing their name in the paper and the recognition they’ve earned can’t help but put a smile on my face.

The truth is, there is no such thing as an overnight success.

No matter what the media paints it to be or what the old folks say. Every single one of those people you look up to, all of your heroes and your role models. They got to where they are by no accident. It was all their own fault.

And that is a beauty of it.

The beautiful thing is that if you put in the work, and you keep showing up, and you love the game, that eventually you’ll find your way to success.

Now, this doesn’t mean luck doesn’t exist, either. Luck and willed-success aren’t mutually exclusive at all. Luck just favors those who put in the work, and put themselves in position to be lucky.

Luck favors the prepared. Fortune favors the brave. Overnight success is a myth.

There’s your excuse to go find something you love and just keep showing up.

Cheers,

Ramsey