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April 4, 2024

"I'm intimidated by the fear of being average."

—Taylor Swift

Ask a Taylor Swift fan to name one song they think of first when they think of her, and you'll get a bunch of different answers:

• Maybe, "Shake it Off," from 1989?
• Or, "You Belong with Me" or "Karma?"
• Or else, some fans might point you to "Anti-Hero," from Midnights?

But, I'll bet few among Taylor Nation would answer correctly if you asked them to name the very first song Swift sang in front of many big crowds, years ago, before she had a record deal.

The answer? It's The Star Spangled Banner, which Swift performed over and over and over at sporting events as a child.

How many times? And why?

"Hundreds," Swift told Rolling Stone in 2008, adding:

I thought this was a brilliant strategy when I saw this old article, and I went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find the story of how Swift started getting these national anthem gigs.

Minor League Baseball says it started at a Reading Phillies game in 1999, when she would have been 9 years old, and she came in as a last-minute substitution:

(I wrote about this part of the story for Inc.com a little while back, and I included a line that I wasn't sure people there would understand, but I'll bet some people here will get it: "This might have been the greatest last-minute substitution at a baseball game since Lou Gehrig filled in for Wally Pipp on the New York Yankees in 1923.")

OK, so why are we talking about this today? What's the big optimism connection?

It's that the earliest video that seems to have survived of Swift performing the national anthem comes from 22 years ago tomorrow, April 5, 2002. Swift was 12 years old and she sang before her biggest audience to date: a sold-out crowd of 20,754 at a Philadelphia 76ers game.

Here's video of a small part of it:

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"My mom and I were just jumping up and down, we were so excited," she said in a newspaper account at the time, adding that her family got caught in traffic on the way to the First Union Center (now known as the Wells Fargo Center) and she nearly missed her soundcheck.

Of course, it's not as if Swift is the only singer ever to think of this strategy. Still, what did she gain?

Most importantly, I think, she got the experience of singing in front of huge groups of people.

Imagine how many musicians you might have seen out there, busking, or playing open mic nights, just trying to find an audience. I'm not saying they shouldn't do that, but the national anthem strategy gives you something else.

And maybe this has something to do with why, when Swift got the chance to open for Rascal Flatts before 10,000 people at age 16 in 2006, she wasn't intimidated by the crowd.

"Not by any measure," she told a reporter then. "I’m intimidated by the fear of being average."

To quote a movie that's actually older than Swift herself, I think the national anthem strategy is sort of the opposite of, "If you build it, they will come."

Instead, it's more like, "Oh, you're over there? Let me come show you what I can do."

Maybe, if you're lucky, the crowds keep getting bigger and bigger.

And maybe, someday, metaphorically speaking or not, you'll realize they're here to hear you, and the songs you wrote yourself.

Day 4!

So far this week, we've featured Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Martin Cooper. Their average age, were they alive now (only one is), would be 161; the median, 95.

So, I'm glad to add Taylor Swift (age 34) and tomorrow, Sara Blakely (53) to the project.

(I realized afterward, however, that this means the end of our first week could also be described as "Stories From Blonde, Female Self-Made Billionaires Before They Made Their Money." Just a little observation; I think this will all thin out over time.)

Just a head's up—one thing I want to do before long is to get readers involved: suggesting people to profile, quotes that inspire you, and ultimately even specific dates in your life that you can look back to now and say: "Oh, I get it now. That was a big optimism date."

(Hold onto them for the moment, however; I want to set up a way to manage them if I start getting tons of them!)

Finally, as I've been saying for days, I really want Big Optimism to remain 100% free. If you want to help out, visiting our advertisers is the way to do it. You should see an ad directly below this paragraph. If not, please enable images!

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Tomorrow's Big Optimism newsletter is about: Sara Blakey. Know someone who might like Big Optimism? Please tell them to sign up here!

7 other things (still thinking about the name for this section!)

1. A California lawmaker wants to make it illegal for your boss to regularly contact you after hours, unless it’s an emergency or to address work schedule issues. If the bill becomes law, any employer that violates it could face a fine of at least $100 per offense. “The villain here, if there had to be one, is not the bosses but really the technology,” said the legislator who introduced the bill. “Everybody has a smartphone, so they’re available 24/7, and that has led a lot of people to feel they can never turn off. Our laws are not updated to reflect that reality.” (Washington Post)
2. Maine, home to my assistant and friend Tom, who helps out with copyediting this newsletter and other helpful tasks, is braced for a huge nor'easter storm forecast to blanket the state with up to 22 inches of snow as a huge swath of the country is being battered by driving rain and tornadoes. The severe weather has already caused massive damage in several states and is continuing to barrel across the country toward New England, bringing snow and soaking rain for the East Coast. (Daily Mail)
3. In one of the largest cash heists in Los Angeles history, thieves made off with as much as $30 million in an Easter Sunday burglary at a San Fernando Valley money storage facility, an L.A. police official revealed Wednesday. The break-in was described as elaborate and suggested an experienced crew of burglars who knew how to gain entry to a secure facility unnoticed. (Los Angeles Times)
4. Mexico’s Catholic bishops are staking out an aggressive new role in national security, going so far as to sit down with feuding drug traffickers in one blood-soaked state to hammer out a truce. “We are witnessing incredible violence against our people,” one bishop said. “This has moved the hearts of the pastors to do something — to not just stand there with our arms crossed.” (The Washington Post)
5. In case you missed it, I published the first edition of the new Understandably newsletter yesterday afternoon. I wrote about Freddy Adu, who made history 20 years ago as the youngest person ever to take the field for a professional U.S. sports team, when he started his career for D.C. United in Major League Soccer -- age 14. There's a lot more to what happened next. (Understandably)
6. Actually, as long as I'm all "hey, go here to see something else I wrote," people might find this interesting. I wrote for Inc.com about how a group of 13,000 McDonald's fans in a Facebook group organized to try to pressure McDonald's to return "bagel breakfast sandwiches" to its menu. Honestly, I just like the fact that a group of people like anything like this much. From the group's founder: "It's like, the closest thing to heaven that you may be able to find here on Earth." (me on Inc.com)
7. OK, I've been prolific. Here's another article I wrote in the last 24 hours, about LSU basketball player Angel Reese declaring for the WNBA draft—but my focus is on the fact that she made the announcement in Vogue magazine, instead of something more traditionally sports-related. (Again, sorry: me on Inc.com)