Episode 310 - Motivation U - Mr Ballen - The King who almost wasn’t

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey, guys, it's time and time and time and time again.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's not for.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Motivation you, motivation you, It is me, It is I.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
You're a beard of marathon or in this by golly gosh,
it's motivation you, Hi, How you do it? How you been?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I found this cool little audio clip, this cool little
audio clip. I isolated it, and I want to share
it with you because I really think it's important. It
tells this great little story that illustrates a point that
I usually tell you.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Guys. Look, you gotta believe in yourself.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It is very, very important you believe in yourself when
you're trying to achieve a thing, when you're trying to
do a thing, when you're trying to become more, when
you're trying to achieve this thing, this dream, this goal,
whatever it is, it's important that you believe in yourself.
It could also be highly important if someone else believes
in you, because you are your own worst critic. But

(01:02):
that person that believes in you sees the greatness that
is there. They believe in you, and that could be
just as important. This story from mister Balin b a
l E. And he's got a podcast show. He's got
a YouTube show. He's got stuff on every social media
go check him out. Highly recommend it. But I isolated

(01:22):
this little story that illustrates that point really really well,
and you will not believe who it involves.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Here we go, mister Balin.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Check it out.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
The late winter of.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Nineteen seventy three, a twenty three year old mother named
Tabby put her eight month old son and two year
old daughter down for their naps inside of their double
wide trailer. She was waiting for her husband to get
home from his job as a high school teacher. Tabby
and her husband actually had dreams of becoming professional writers.
For the most part, the only thing their writing had
gotten them was a whole bunch of projection. They barely
made any money.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Tabby was home with.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
The kids and then in the evening would work some
shifts at a Dunkin Donuts, and then her husband, in
addition to being a teacher, also worked at a laundromat.
Her husband, who also had the same dream, was over
time becoming increasingly more pessimistic about his opportunity to, you know,
one day, just be a writer. Tabby walked to the
tiny laundry room in the back of their trailer. The
laundry room actually doubled as her husband's office.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
She saw his desk was a total mess, and.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
The trash can next to the table on the ground
was overflowing.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
With crumpled up pieces of paper.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
She happened to glance at one of these crumpled up
pieces of paper in the trash and she skimmed a
couple of sentences that.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Were written on it. Her husband always shared with her
anything he.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Had written, and there was something about this text that
she knew she had not read.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
It before, like this was different.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Then actually began reading what turned out to be this
failed manuscript that her husband had thrown away, and she
couldn't believe how good it was, and this is so good,
why is it.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Crumpled up and in the trash?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Just then Tabby heard the front door of the trailer
open and her husband come inside, and so Tabby just
took the page she was reading and she held it
up to her husband and she was like, what is this?

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Why have and you showed me this? And to tappy.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Surprise, her husband, when he realized what she was holding,
just looked totally embarrassed, like he wished she hadn't seen that.
And her husband would tell her, look, like, I started
writing this thing, you know, I didn't really know what
it was going to become. But I quickly realized that
I don't know enough about the subject matter and I'm
just not talented enough to finish the story. And he
really understood at this point in his career that he

(03:23):
was a failed writer. What he really needed to do
was give up writing altogether and just focus on making money.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
For the family.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
And so she just held up this piece of paper
and she said, no, this is the one that's going
to help you break through. I know it, and together
we can make this a full length novel. And so,
at Tabby's insistence, that's what her husband did. He would
spend several months working with Tabby to finish this novel,
and by the spring of nineteen seventy four it was done.
But they were both totally blown away when one of.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
The major publishers they sent this thing to came.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Back and said, not only will we absolutely print this book,
but we'll also give you a four hundred thousand dollars advance,
which in today's money is two and a half million dollars,
a massive, massive book deal by any standard.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
That was only the beginning.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Tabby's decision to pull that crumpled up piece of paper
out of the trash can would prove to be a
good one, because her husband would go on to become
arguably one of the most famous writers.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
In the world. That story that Tabby saved.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
From the trash can would go on to become the
iconic horror novel. Carrie Tabby's husband was none other than
Stephen King.