We believe we’re failing if we don’t touch every heart

The danger is, we believe that we’re failing if we don’t touch every heart.

That if we can just make everybody happy, then everything will be okay.

Barnum sings about this is the spectacular movie about origin of the circus:

All the shine of a thousand spotlights, all the stars we steal from the night sky, it will never be enough. Towers of gold are still too little. These hands could hold the world, but it will never be enough.

Until his wife, standing before him with their two children, delivers the most important line of the film:

This is the greatest show. It’s everything you ever want, everything you ever need. And it’s here right in front of you. You don’t need everyone to love you. Just a few good people.

What’s beautiful about this is, not only do we not need everyone in the world to love us, but for the people who already do, we don’t need to work so goddamn hard to make them do it.

Because we’re already loved. Hell, these are people even know who we are, and they still love us.

What a gift. What a privilege. It’s hard not to invoke my songwriting hero at this point.

Phillips, after thirty years touring the world making music, said his newfound artistic goal was to reach less people more deeply. It’s quite counterintuitive in our ego driven, sized obsessed, attention crazed culture. But there’s also a certain humility and peace in that approach.

Phillips no longer feels the need to touch every heart. Just be deeply useful to a few good people.

And so, let’s focus less about being loved, and more about being what we love.

The applause certainly isn’t as loud, but then again, how much clapping does one man really need?

Remember, you can still love your work even if everybody doesn’t love you for doing it.

Are you trying to get a million people to like you, or trying to get a hundred people to love you?