Seth Swirsky
Reference date: May 2007While working on my letter writing project in 2006, I sought out others who made a habit of corresponding with those who inspired them.
One of the people I was drawn to was a multi talented guy named Seth Swirsky. In 1994, with Major League Baseball on strike, Seth began writing to the heroes of the game, past and present. He turned his efforts into a book called "
Baseball Letters" and has since written two follow up books detailing his missives. (see above pictures.)
Just doing that would be enough to qualify one as accomplished, but Mr. Swirsky has done so much more. In addition to being a published author, he is also a musician, artist, collector and , as he bills himself, "manic expressive." To find out more about him, you can visit his website:
www.Seth.comI wrote to Mr. Swirsky just last month to compliment him on his books, and to tell him how much they meant to me and my dad. Though it's not 2006 anymore, I also asked him some of the questions that I posed to all of the people I wrote to last year.
Here was his response:
Hey Chris,
Nice to hear from you. Thanks for your very kind words about my books. I'm so happy you had the chance to share some of the letters with your dad --I remember reading about him: you talk about an inspiring human being -- I would say you've got one in a father. Amazing man.
My parents always, always, always supported me -- playing the guitar at an early age, songwriting, etc. They always promoted what I was interested in. By far, they gave me the most encouragement.
An early mentor would be a man named Irwin Schister. When I was 20, I walked into his office in NYC. He was the Vice President of Chappell Music, the top music publisher in the world at that time. They published the songs of the Bee Gees, George Gershwin, The Police, Culture Club, Elvis Presley --you name the song, they probably published it. I had the opportunity, during my summer break in college to play him a song of mine and he flipped, giving me a contract on the spot. I eventually became a staff songwriter with Chappell and went on to write a number of hit songs, most notably "Tell it to My heart" for Taylor Dayne. At an early age, he liked my music and that was extremely encouraging.
I have a little formula I made up as the key to success: You must have the 3 "P's": Passion,Perseverance and Patience." If you just follow that, success will come.
What daily habit contributes most to my success? By far, interest in the subject I'm working on.
All my best Chris.
Sincerely,
Seth
