Life Lessons from Paul Saltzman and The Beatles

Paul Saltzman is a rather remarkable person, who gave a talk at TEDxWaterloo last February sharing his insight on life and describing his personal journey and magical encounter with The Beatles in India back in the late 1960′s.

This TEDxWaterloo Talk in particular, has emerged as one of my favourites from the one-day event that we organized and held at the Gig Music Hall in Kitchener last February 25.

Paul’s remarkable story of traveling to India on a whim and his chance encounter with the Beatles, was told in a very compelling manner that I find myself watching this particular talk over and over again even after the fact. I remember sitting in the audience at TEDxWaterloo and hanging on to his every word as he shared his insight on humility and the notion of not making yourself small, but understanding your size in the universe.

This life lesson was passed on to him by George Harrison of the Beatles, who was 24 years old and the same age as Paul at the time, who put things into perspective by saying

“We’re the Beatles after all aren’t we? We have all the money you could ever dream of, we have all the fame you could ever wish for, but it isn’t love, it isn’t health, it isn’t peace inside.”

At the end of the day, Paul concluded that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were ordinary people just like him, who were leading very extraordinary lives.

Paul mentioned the word ‘magic’ several times throughout his presentation, defining magic as ‘that which is real, but as yet we do not understand’. This term was set within the context of ‘magical’ coincidences and opportunities that he has had in his life, simply by virtue of paying attention to the broader universe and what it was telling and compelling him to do, even if he did not quite fully understand it at the time.

Perhaps this is one of the major reasons why Paul’s talk at TEDxWaterloo speaks very loudly to me at this point in my life. There are times where I do feel that I don’t know where I am going, but I get the sense and the occasional reassurance that I am on my way there.

Exciting times ahead.