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 Bob Barker had a childhood dream: to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals. But there was, he said, one glaring problem: “I had a complete lack of talent.”
Instead, he ended up hosting an audience-participation radio show. Hollywood executive Ralph Edwards liked his voice and signed him to do the new game show Truth or Consequences. The date was December 21, 1956. (I was 10 weeks old at the time.)
Fifteen years later, he switched to a new show called The Price is Right. It was an instant success, and it has continued to garner fans, ratings, and awards.
Now, after thirty-five years at The Price is Right and 50 years in television, Bob Barker is retiring. When asked why he was finally calling it quits he said, “Because I am 83 years old, and I want to retire while I am still young.”
Bob Barker’s dream of pitching for the Cardinals never materialized. But once he confronted the brutal facts about his lack of talent and discarded a hopeless dream, he found his true talent.
This is one of the jobs leaders have: to help people discover their talents. And sometimes, in order to do that, they must pop the bubble of unrealistic dreams so that people can find what they were truly meant to do.
Everyone has unrealistic dreams at some time in their life. (I wanted to be a super hero as a kid. Unfortunately, I could never find a radioactive spider.) Some people cling to them too long, and some people never let go of them.
But Bob Barker did. And after 17 Emmys, 25 consecutive years atop his time slot, and 9,412 kisses from contestants, it has made all the difference.
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