The great lie.

"If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

This statement has been oft-quoted in many different ways and attributed to many different people and it's all a lie. My friend Jody is a great actor and singer with a powerful voice and no producer has beaten a path to his door. My friend Sharon is a fantastic artist and the creator of highly imaginative children's books. But no gallery or publisher has beaten a path to her door.
My friend and collaborator John Dusenberry is an immensely talented composer and musician, but nobody has beaten a path to his door (or mine for that matter).  I know many creative and talented people who have built better mousetraps and nobody has beaten a path to any of their doors and they don't even live in the woods. It's not that they don't make efforts to be recognized. They do. But it is no longer enough to be creative, one must also be a networker and aggressive self-promoter.  This mousetrap lie  may have been true once, but not any more. Not in the day of networking, celebrity publications (notably children's books) and the added hurdle of dealing with naifs hired to be editors and executives. Every day someone dies, leaving behind in storage that brilliant novel that was never published, that superb song never recorded, that Tony-worthy play never produced, that inspired painting never galleried. Or, in some cases it is the person themselves, who could have been a heralded star if those in power weren't unable to recognize what audiences would have seen.