The Best Advice I Ever Got by Katie Couric

involved in tennis in the first place. I expected his answer to be that tennis offered opportunities to travel the world, or that playing on the tour was a good way to earn a living or to achieve fame. Instead, he quipped that tennis was a good way of keeping us off the streets and out of trouble. In more reflective moments, he’d say that he wanted to encourage us to set goals for ourselves and to learn the feeling of achievement.
    As I get older, my father gets smarter. After having three children of my own, I understand what he meant about the value of setting goals. Having a passion in life, like a sport, keeps you busy and prevents idle time that can lead to temptation and wrong choices. Following a passion is also a source of self-esteem. As my children have grown up, each and every accomplishment has made them feel good about themselves, and as their mother I could not be more proud.

Hugh Jackman
    Tony Award-Winning Actor and Producer

    Trust Your Gut
     
Write down five things you love to do. Next, write down five things that you’re really good at. Then just try to match them up! Revisit your list once a year to make sure you’re on the right track.
Resist the urge to write lists, especially if the list is “Pros and Cons.” Just go with your gut.
As the doctor who delivered my son said to me moments after his birth, “Don’t rock the baby.”
Learn to trust the feeling of “not knowing.” For most of us, most of the time, that is the truth.
Oh, and take it from me, the label is right: Don’t Drink the Paint!

Marc Shaiman
    Oscar-Nominated, Tony/Grammy/Emmy Award-Winning Composer, Lyricist, and Arranger

    Oh, Miss Midler …
    When I was around fourteen or so, I was exposed to the gargantuan talents of Bette Midler and became quite obsessed. I cut school once to take the bus from New Jersey to New York City to see her in concert. As she sang (and for many months after that), I imagined myself running down the aisle saying, “Oh, Miss Midler, I know every note of every arrangement of every song on every album of yours. Please let me play for you.” In this daydream, I then sat down at the piano and was—of course—fantastic. From her perch atop the piano, Bette would look out at the audience with a “Damn, he’s good!” expression. Nice dream.
    When I was sixteen, having recently received my high school equivalency diploma, I went into the city with a friend to see an Off Broadway show. Afterward, we ran into some friends standing in front of a little bar and we all decided to stop in. Lo and behold, it was a piano bar—so of course I sat right down and started playing.
    The bartender, sweeping up the bar (like right out of an old movie), stopped and said to me, “Stay right there.” He ran out the door and came back a minute later accompanied by five people. They were rehearsing an act next door and explained that they needed a funnier piano player. They asked if I could play “cheesy,” and I said, “You mean like at a bar mitzvah?” I played in that style and got the job playing with the troupe, who called themselves Cocktails for Five. One of those five people was named Scott, and he became my partner (in all ways) and we are about to celebrate our thirty-second anniversary. But that’s a whole other story.
    Anyway, I would stay with the Cocktails for Five gang on the weekends to play for their act and, as fate would have it, one of Bette Midler’s backup girls (who are called the Harlettes) lived across the hall. The Harlettes were looking to do an act on their own and, to make a long story short, because I knew all about the harmonies they’d want (from studying Bette Midler records and the records those albums led me to), because I lived across the hall, and mostly because I would work for free, I got the gig.
    The Harlettes’ solo act was a hit, and Bette invited the girls to go back out on the road to open her show. I was flown to Los Angeles to put together the girls’ opening