I was idly watching This Morning today while drying my hair and getting kids off to school and noticed Seal on the show talking about how the election of Barack Obama was sending a message around the world that the “American Dream” is alive and well and that ANYONE can seize it for themselves and make it their own (no matter who they are or where they were).
What is the American Dream? That ANYBODY, no matter who you are, what sex you are, what colour you are, how poor you are, that ANYBODY can look at their life, turn it around and make a success of themselves. If you are willing to work hard, to do what many are not willing to do, to educate yourself and take responsibility for you, your life and your actions and outcomes, you CAN MAKE IT.
A black man in the White House, one who came from the background Barack Obama did, proves it. And so does Seal’s own story.
He went on to say that he could see little shoots of American Dream thinking in Britain now….
When the presenter pressed him on that (obviously not believing it herself) and asked him if he really believed that, that anyone could make it, wasn’t it just a dream, a pipe dream, he said “ABSOLUTELY – ANYONE CAN DO IT!”. He was totally convincing.
Seal, famous for his good looks and scarred face, has just released an album of classic soul songs that he grew up with, listening to the radio while his mother worked at her kitchen table as a wigmaker, in Brixton. Now he’s one of the most highly paid and respected artists in the world, happily married to Heidi Krum, the international supermodel, with three beautiful children, living in the America he dreamed of, as a child. A real success story, and what’s more, a happy looking one.
Ironically, while I was still in the world of employment, I worked for Seal’s music publishing company, before being made redundant five days before my due date, just because I was pregnant (by a female & pregnant herself, boss). I did fight that one and won some compensation you will be glad to hear.
One of the many, many reasons I finally went self employed and started to build a business and determined to be a success.