One Man’s Story of Guitars, Music and a Dream Brings Hope Among Economic Crisis.

This is not my usually blog entry but I was so moved by the story that I just had to share. Tim has been a friend of mine for many years now and to hear his story breaks my heart, yet at the same time it offers so much hope to people during the economic recession we are in. It is so important to follow your dreams. I hope this speaks encouragement to your soul. Enjoy!

“I’m really incredibly lucky to be doing what I do but it took about 7 years of wandering in the wilderness to get me to where I am today.  Spent 20 yrs in computer sales until 9/11, then everything fell apart.  In one year my income fell to about 1/4 of what it was.  I couldn’t find a job where I was making anywhere near the money I was and we were draining every avenue of savings, 401k, savings bonds, etc. you could think of.  Finally we had to file chapter 7 bankruptcy.  What a hard year that was.  I went through more jobs and more self doubt in one year than I ever thought possible.  I believe Satan came to live in my head just to remind me of what a total failure I had been.  After my unemployment checks ran out I went six months with nothing.  No work, no income, dry as a bone.  This was about as low as it gets.  No one in my family even offered to help.  It was as if they were saying that somehow it was my entire fault and they were just going to let me suffer in order for me to learn a valuable life lesson.  Well, my church stepped in and some friends I didn’t even know I had offered to lend a hand.  Things started to slow down and I got a job at MPD (the old GE plant downtown).  It didn’t pay much but it was something I could count on.  Then I decided to start teaching guitar at a local music store.  I had taught years ago but stopped in order to take part in my kid’s activities.  Now that they had grown up and soccer and cheer leading were about over it was a good time to get back to teaching the instrument I had been playing for 30 years.  A year after I started the MPD job, they laid off 12 of us.  I landed a job with another computer company although I somehow knew that it wouldn’t last long.  The industry had changed and you just can’t make any money off of equipment anymore and that was how I was supposed to make a living.  Four months later, boom, I and another guy were laid off.  That’s when I said, “I’ve had it”.  A friend had given me a book called, “48 Days to the Work You Love” about 2 months earlier.  I decided it was time to read it and get to work.  It was as if every page was screaming at me to start teaching full time.  Be my own boss; call my own shots, that sort of thing.  I just didn’t believe I could make a living doing that.  Well, I got to this place in the book where it talked about your “calling”.  This was interesting because I’d been looking for that since age 16.  The book called for you to look at what you are good at, what is it that when you are doing it–time flies, what is it that you do that best helps others, what do you love to do, how are you gifted and wired?  This IS your calling!  As much as Satan lived in my head before and told me I was a failure, God was speaking directly to my mindsaying, “Hey, Tim this is what I created you to do, so get to it”.  I literally said, “God, if this is you telling me what I need to do then it has to be successful so I’m going to give it a try”.  I just started my 2nd year of doing nothing but teaching guitar.  I’ve put to use all my years of sales and marketing and last year I made more than double what I made in any one year for the last 6 years. I went from 11 students in Jan of 2008 to 45 in May of 2008.  For the last year I have maintained an average of 40 students.  Because I’m able to teach all my students in under 30hrs a week, I have some free time on my hands.  In July of 2009 my wife was laid off from her job of 22yrs.  While this was devastating emotionally, the company did provide a severance package which enabled us to pay off most of our debt.  About a month or two prior to her being laid off, I was presented with the opportunity of buying an online business called Guitar Goods.  This business had been up and going for 4.5yrs and had fared pretty well for the part time endeavor given by its owner.  Because Guitar Goods sold a wide variety of guitar accessories, it seemed like a perfect fit for a guitar instructor with time on his hands.  In November of 2009 I, along with a partner with whom I had been associated with musically for 30yrs, purchased Guitar Goods.  While we’ve only had the reins of this small business for about 2 months, things are going well.  We have a preferred dealership with Amazon and we are looking into opening an eBay store as well as developing a presence on Windows Live.  We have a long way to go and my wife is still looking for full time work with health insurance benefits but, for the first time in the 26yrs we’ve been married, neither of us are working for someone else.  The sky’s the limit.” Tim Hicks

 

If you could do anything and not fail what would it be? What talents and dreams have you swept under the rug that could offer you a potentially life changing opportunity? Love to hear from you.

1. 

   Jason Elkins says:

   February 10, 2010 at 9:32 am

   Anita, what an inspiring story. It’s great to read that Tim is finally living his passion and being successful. This resonates especially loudly here in Nashville. Thanks for posting this.

   Jason