Don’t Miss the Beatles
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by Jon Buck
A fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. ~ Proverbs 12:15
A Decca Records executive made one of the biggest gaffes in music history in 1962 when he concluded that the Beatles had ‘no future in show business’. He told Brian Epstein, the band’s manager, “We don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups are out. Four-piece groups with guitars, particularly, are finished.”
The band found another label (Parlophone), recorded an album for around $500, and within a year, the band had released Please Please Me, which is still considered one of the greatest albums of all time. It has reached multi-platinum, and has 3 of the top 500 songs in rock and roll history.
How could someone have missed the mark so terribly?
The answer, very simply, is that the record executive was right in his own eyes. He was blinded by pride and his confidence that he knew best what was coming in the future.
We can often be just like this record executive. We can think that we are right in countless areas, when the truth is that we have been blinded by our own pride.
We can convince ourselves that we have thought through all the possible outcomes, have considered all the options, and have reached the only possible conclusion. And yet, we can be wrong.
How do we avoid being a fool? Solomon tells us in Proverbs 12:15 that the only way is to listen to counsel. We need to hear from others around us in order to have true wisdom.
So ask yourself some questions:
Are there Godly people around me that I regularly go to for advice? Or do I think I have things pretty well handled on my own?
Do I actively seek out those who I know love me enough to tell me I might be wrong? Or am I scared to ask them their opinion in case they contradict me?
When someone comes to me with counsel, am I willing to listen? Or is my first reaction defensiveness?