Dylan and Destiny

Bob Dylan's self-fulfilling prophecy.

“In ancient times, many great leaders, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, felt that they were descended from gods and part divine. Such self-belief would translate into high levels of confidence that others would feed off and recognize. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. You do not need to indulge in such grandiose thoughts, but feeling that you are destined for something great or important will give you a degree of resilience when people oppose or resist you. You will not internalize the doubts that come from such moments. You will have an enterprising spirit. You will continually try new things, even taking risks, confident in your ability to bounce back from failures and feeling destined to succeed.”

That’s the November 19 entry from Robert Greene’s book “The Daily Laws”. I am a huge fan of Robert Greene and his books and they are as timeless as Bob and his music. I know that Robert is a Bob Dylan fan, but when I read this quote, it immediately reminded me of Bob.

In our 4-part-series of Bob Dylan’s early high school bands we also explored, how many times Bob “lost” band mates to other bands, for various reasons. His parents didn’t want him to ride this new train of rock and roll.

It always amazes me when I think about this enormous sense of purpose that seemed to drive Bob’s career since he was a little school boy. In his book “Mastery”, Robert Greene describes how he thinks that every single person has certain talents and gifts which he can use to craft his very own life and career. For some, this is not easy to discover at all. Then there are people like Bob, who seemed to have felt it right from the beginning.

He lost band members to other bands all the time. He was kicked out of Bobby Vee’s band. He got into some serious trouble with his parents, esp. with his father. One of his closest friends had a terrible diving accident. The reaction of the high school audience was everything but welcoming. But he kept on going. He just knew. And this is amazing and inspiring.