It was 2009 and the beers were flowing at happy hour in Malasaña. Malasaña was the place to hang out in Madrid. Full of fun patios, quirky bars and lively people enjoying the scene.

“You look familiar,” I told him.

“I’m a small-time actor in New York,” he said.

“Wait…what have you been in recently? I feel like I’ve just seen you in something.”

He told me a few things he’d been working on. One of the things was an appearance on the TV series “House” starring Hugh Laurie.

Little did he know that I was obsessed with “House” and would regularly spend my hungover mornings after too many Spanish cañas lying in bed watching entire seasons of Dr. House’s dickishness. My roommate at the time was extremely tech savvy when it came to entertainment piracy and kept a hard drive filled of continually renewing seasons of all the top shows

When he told me he’d been on “House,” I exclaimed with the type of excitement a cooler dude would’ve reserved for only Hugh Laurie himself.

“Dude! You’re Alvie!”

He laughed and shrugged it off. I continued, “that’s a crazy coincidence man, I just watched the first episode of season 6 yesterday!”

For those not in the know, season 6 starts with Dr. House locked up in a mental hospital sharing a room with an over-the-top character named Alvie. His OCD excitement is best described as a cross between Alvin the chipmunk and Dug, the golden retriever from the Disney movie Up.

This coincidence made him laugh and we spent the rest of the happy hour sharing beers with our friends and talking about music. He mentioned something about working on a musical in New York, but he didn’t elaborate on it that much, and the girl he was with at the time thought his entire idea was a bit strange.

Now, in and of itself that would’ve been a weird coincidence, but it gets weirder.

Fast forward seven years.

I’m sitting in a nail salon in Tucson, Arizona, getting a strip-mall manicure. It’s exactly like any other manicure, just cheaper. Either that, or I’m not the best judge of the quality of a manicure.

I’m a stress biter so I can’t say that I take good care of my nails either way, but here I am, watching Ellen ruling her daytime talk show empire from the comfort of my massage chair.

I’m sitting there with my wife because I’m the type of husband that does whatever she wants on her birthday. However, I find myself feeling oddly relaxed, and hey, Ellen’s on, and she’s hilarious so it’s not exactly a shitty Sunday.

Ellen’s guest that day was Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the impossible-to-get-tickets-to-best-selling-smash-musical Hamilton. I had seen Miranda host Saturday Night Live a couple weeks before that and his performance had been excellent. His monologue and SNL rendition of “My Shot” were awesome and I didn’t think about him in any other way than the incredible creative behind Hamilton.

However…his appearance on Ellen was a bit different. Ellen’s always excited about her guests but the enthusiastic buzz they shared reminded me of that episode of “House” and the crazed excitement and enthusiasm from the character Alvie.

And I thought, “wait a minute…it can’t be.”

With my right hand firmly grasped by the manicurist I struggled to get my phone out of my pocket. I clumsily navigated my smartphone with my left hand until I found the IMDB app. After a couple tries of misspelling H-O-U-S-E with my left thumb, I finally found Season 6, episode 1. Scrolling down the credits of the cast, I found Dr. House’s OCD roommate, the character Juan ‘Alvie’ Alvarez.

On the right, the actor’s name said, “Lin-Manuel Miranda.”

I couldn’t believe it. The same guy I chatted to years earlier at a random bar in Madrid turned out to be the creator of Hamilton!

It made me think of all the characters that probably drank with Hemingway while he wrote in Madrid back in the day. More importantly, it made me think that you never know where people’s creativity will take them.

Maybe your creative idea will turn into a smash Broadway hit. Maybe not. But if you don’t tackle your creativity every day, one thing’s for certain. Nothing will happen.

Don’t be the noname who drank with Hemingway. Be the person Hemingway inspired to become creative. Don’t be the drunk on the street corner who tells stories of the great creatives they’ve met. Be a great creative yourself.

Whether your creativity manifests itself in songwriting, acting, painting or building apps, just try to make a tiny bit of progress every day.

Hamilton’s success was created one line at a time, way before it was ever successful. Your creativity should be embraced for what it is when you create it, not for the potential success it might give you. So if you believe in what you’re doing, keep doing it. Keep writing code, keep painting pictures and keep creating however you can.

There’s plenty of time to become successful, but you have to be creative enough to deserve it.

​​​​​​​Björgvin

P.S.

If you think your songs are creative enough, but your mixes are lacking, check out the Mixing With 5 Plug-ins course here to get the confidence you need to release your songs.