It’s amazing all the various places that one can find great career tips, from an offhanded comment of a stranger on the bus, to Chinese fortune cookies and even jazz superstars.

According to Neil McCormick (of the London Telegraph), Tony Bennett, who had recorded a duet with Amy Winehouse earlier this year, felt a felt a bond with her. 

Said Bennett, “Of all the young people I’ve met over the past 50 years, she sang the right way.  She was ready to take a chance, right on the spot, right on the microphone.  Bennett came to admire Amy’s fluid, jazz-like phrasing and her spontaneous and intimate improvisations.

He understood Winehouse’s demons too.  Bennett, now 85, had his own issues with drugs and alcohol.  In 1979, he nearly died of a cocaine overdose. “I was almost the Amy Winehouse of my day.”

A chance encounter changed everything.  “I was talking to Woody Allen’s manager, Jeff Rawlins, and he said he used to handle Lenny Bruce.  I said, ‘Oh, I knew Lenny, what did you think of him?’ He said, ‘He sinned against his talent.’” 

“I threw away all kinds of corruption,” said Bennett.  “I just went back to being pretty normal.  I’d like to have talked to Amy about that.  She had a gift.  Don’t sin against your talent.”

Drugs, alcohol and overdoses are obvious ways to sin against your talent.  So are ignoring it, not developing it, becoming arrogant about it, ignoring your need for a day job to help you finance getting better at your talent or letting it lead you into disastrous relationships or choices. 

Think about your talents.  Are you sinning against them?  How do hope to get the life you want if you are?{jcomments on}