If you live in Nashville you’ve probably heard about the high school kid who is going to get to job-shadow Jimmy Fallon tomorrow (Wednesday).
Pretty crazy story. The kid, Andrew, is buddies with my nephew, Walker…so it’s basically like I’m job-shadowing Jimmy Fallon tomorrow.
A few things…
…None of what Andrew did cost any money (that I can tell). He tweeted about wanting to shadow Jimmy for his senior year project and asked people to retweet. They did. Then more did. Then a lot more tweeted…using the hashtag #AndrewShadowJimmy
Then Andrew made a short video about wanting to job shadow Jimmy. Lots of people watched it and shared it…quickly.
The hard part, the exceptional part, was not the tweet or the video…it was being a person that other people wanted to see win. It was the last 18 years of Andrew’s life, unknowingly developing into someone that people could attach to and cheer for.
Mean people and cheaters don’t get this kind of support.
Also the cause…he wasn’t asking people to fund his album on Kickstarter or donate to his new non-profit, he was shooting for a goal that was unique and yet familiar to people.
Job-shadowing. We all know that term and associate with high school. A necessary awkward day following around an adult doing something we only kind of are interested in. But looking back on it, everyone kinda smirks and relishes in the nostalgia of it.
Jimmy Fallon. Everyone knows who he is, wants to be his friend and believes he’s a good guy. He also has a reputation for doing nice things, off the wall things, breaking the conventional mold of late night TV.
So maybe, juuuuuuuust maybe, this could work.
You need to take a second and think about the million reasons why this shouldn’t of worked, why he shouldn’t have tried this. The million reasons, you, me and everyone else would have given an 18 year old not to do this. We would have told him it’s a really neat idea, but do you REALLY think it’s gonna happen…
My guess is when Andrew first tweeted that tweet, he was the only one on planet earth who believed it was actually, literally possible for him to achieve his goal.
A lot of stars aligned just right in order for this to be happening. But Andrew put it on the line, and it worked. If he wouldn’t have put it on the line, it wouldn’t have worked.
It’s easy to sing the praises of someone like Andrew when it has a happy ending, when someone beats the odds. We can all say “we knew it would happen!!!!!!”
But after tomorrow over and the job shadow senior project is complete, Andrew will go on (just like he was doing last week and last month and last year) believing that he CAN.
Can you? Will you?
p.s. Everyone who knows Andrew, or doesn’t even know him but has a nephew who does, is winning because of Andrew. Everyone who retweeted the tweet or watched the video or tweeted Jimmy about this feels directly associated and will carry it as a badge of coolness and a great story of their OWN forever.
I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com
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