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Jim Nabors had to hide his Hollywood dreams
Nabors had to get up and leave to chase his dreams.
Have you ever held something inside for fear of how it would make you look? Maybe you've always wanted to dance, but you're scared of people seeing you that way. Or maybe some part of you knows you'd be great at public speaking if only those around you would take you seriously. Who knows what the world would be like if we all lived without the anxieties of how we'd be perceived?
It's not just us who fight these anxieties, either. Quite a few famous people have had to contend with the perceptions of those around them. No matter who you are, there's a chance you can relate to the feeling of not doing what you'd like because of how it might "look."
Take, for example, multi-talented entertainer extraordinaire Jim Nabors. He was so undeniable in his role on The Andy Griffith Show that he earned a series of his own. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. was constructed around how charming and watchable Nabors was onscreen. What could've been a one-note character was instead a vehicle for an entire program. But, if Nabors had let his early critics decide, he might not have ever taken the first steps toward show business.
A few years after wrapping up Gomer Pyle, Nabors was concentrating on his singing career, which took him all over the world. During a month of club appearances in Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald asked Jim Nabors whether he ever shared his Hollywood hopes with people around him growing up in Alabama.
"They would have laughed themselves silly. I didn't even know how well I could sing until I left and went to college," he said.
"When I sang around the house, I was told to shut up."
If this is true for one of TV's most legendary performers, imagine how many folks have been kept from their purpose because they were afraid of how their peers would react.
The truth is that most people in this world are unfulfilled. They might not share it, or even recognize that truth inside. But this dissatisfaction rears its ugly head whenever someone else dares to reach beyond their means.
Luckily for us, Jim Nabors remained steadfast in his ambitions. The rest is television history.
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