A New Cinderella

Paul Potts is our new Cinderella. What’s amazing about his story isn’t the fact that he nailed Puccini’s Nessun Dorma on Britain’s Got Talent in front of Simon Cowell and many others; what’s amazing is his reaction afterwards.

One day last week I was at the gym doing my 45 minutes on the elliptical and, yes, I was watching Oprah. Before last week, I had never heard of Paul Potts. His story amazed and stunned me. I saw so much of myself in him, and you may, too.

Potts, who years ago was bullied on the schoolyard playground, was dangerously close to giving up on his dream. His reaction after his initial performance on last summer’s Britain’s Got Talent was one of disbelief. The 36-year-old Welsh tenor was ready to call it quits if the critics, including Cowell, were too harsh and kept him from progressing to the next round in the competition. His reaction seemed to suggest he had indeed finally exorcized the bullies who have haunted him for far too long.

Arriving for this life-changing performance in a suit that cost less than $100, Potts had the swagger of someone who suffered from chronic resignation. All of those voice lessons, all of those days spent dreaming about the “what ifs” were before him at this moment in his life.

He took the stage. He held his dream firmly in the palm of his hand, ready to release it, if requested. Paul Potts threw caution to the wind and delivered the performance of his lifetime. He summoned the courage to face a lifetime of demons who told him that he would never be enough. He proved them wrong.

His face; his reaction afterwards is the gem in this story. How would you feel if you knew your life’s dream was on the one-yard line? How would it feel to stand in judgment, awaiting a verdict that would dictate the rest of your life? His face breathed relief and his body shook with ecstasy when he knew he had carried the ball across the goal line.

Potts drew a line in the sand. He committed to an overly hyped and commercialized television program to be the watershed moment for his life. After delivering his performance, he knew he had come home to who he was meant to be.

Sometimes victory is just around the corner, but we veer off the road too soon. Sometimes the answer to what we have been looking for can be found moments after we give up, but we never know it.

Paul stayed the course. He exhausted all of his opportunities. And he found success on the 59th minute of the 11th hour of the 7th day. When he won the competition last summer, he won it in a tuxedo – far from the inexpensive suite, but worthy of an elegant man.

Paul Potts will always remind me never to give up.

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