When I first started college, I had a remedial math teacher named Dr. Wee. As I was certainly guilty of treating freshman year and college like the 13th grade, I made the most important mistake of my life. I walked into Dr. Wee’s class without the homework that she insisted we have for the following class. She called me to the board, and I literally said to her, “Na, that’s all right!” I was too embarrassed to come to the board and attempt the problem. Too afraid to get it wrong because I had not forgiven myself for many of my previous failures, so why would I add to the plate? I watched another guy in the class who I did not think was as sharp as I was, yet he had something I didn’t; courage and forgiveness. He most certainly got the problem wrong, but he had the courage to do so. The lesson I learned was to have the courage to get something wrong and the smarts to forgive yourself if you do.

I am, most of all, the child of God. I am a high school graduate. I am a four times college graduate. I am a professional wrestler. I am a licensed, certified clinical social worker. I am up former professional bowler. I am a radio host. I am the leader of an international band that has won many awards and has recorded 13 albums over 29 years. I traveled on the national karate circuit. I learned many moons ago that it’s more important and much more difficult to be the nice guy in the room as opposed to the tough guy. In regard to the business that I run now, that would be the Kelly Bell Band. Google us and see our videos on YouTube- I believe they speak for themselves! For the person who says to you that you can’t do it all in life, well, they never met me.

I, like many of you reading this now, have had to step away from loved ones and friendships that were holding you back from your assignment. I have encountered this many times and made great efforts to maintain friendships in light of this, but the hard lesson is sometimes you just have to move on. There’s no easy answer or timeframe in which you need to move on from another human being, but at some point, you have to look yourself in the face and ask how is this person adding to my life and or how am I adding to their life? If you can’t come up with a positive answer, one way or the other, then this is probably a relationship you should move on from.

Staying kind, consistent, and hungry! Albert Collins, famed master of the telecaster, guitar, and blues legend, was a mentor of mine. One night after a show, we sat in the green room as they ushered fans in to get their albums and CDs signed. I literally watched him change from the Albert that I knew to the superstar blues Legend who was incredibly kind to everyone he touched. He told me an amazing story about when music was not paying all the bills, and he had to work as a carpenter. He found himself painting around a chandelier, standing on a very tall ladder when the owner of the mansion arrived home. The owner recognized him right away and went bananas for him, taking him down from the ladder and ushering him off to another room where he had over 400 guitars on display. Eventually, Albert had to say to the gentleman I’m sorry, but I was hired to paint the house and not play guitar and went back to work. That gentleman helped Albert to get back on the road and play music full-time, and he never had to turn to carpentry again. That man was Eric Clapton. Albert had no idea who he was, but Eric idolized Albert. They shared the stage many times after that before Albert passed, but I was lucky enough to hear the story firsthand and then take an hour’s lessons. Albert always said, “be kind to everyone because you never know who you’re talking to.“