Your Wednesday Inspiration: Passion

"Caine Monroy is a 9-year old boy who spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.
Caine dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers visit his arcade, and he spent months preparing everything, perfecting the game design, making displays for the prizes, designing elaborate security systems, and hand labeling paper-lunch-gift-bags. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of East LA) gets almost zero foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to play Caine’s Arcade. But Caine never gave up.
One day, by chance, I walked into Smart Parts Auto looking for a used door handle for my ’96 Corolla. What I found was an elaborate handmade cardboard arcade manned by a young boy who asked if I would like to play. I asked Caine how it worked and he told me that for $1 I could get two turns, or for $2 I could get a Fun Pass with 500 turns. I got the Fun Pass."

Next time I'm in Los Angeles, I fully intend to stop by Caine's Arcade and buy the Fun Pass.  What I really love is that there is a college fund started for this little boy and they've already reached over $79k!  Can you imagine what Caine could do with an engineering degree?!?  Visit his site to donate and repost the video!

“The philosopher Kant once called music the 'quickening art.' And Henry is being quickened, he's being brought to life,” says Dr. Oliver Sacks. It's amazing to see this man, seemingly trapped in his own mind, brought back by the power of music. In addition to being "quickened" while the music is playing, he retains his clarity afterward while talking about music. You can see his passion so clearly, you can't help but get a little teary-eyed.

Valentina Lisitsa gained a certain level of notoriety for this student video.  I think what people most connect with in this concert pianist is her passion.  In the interview below, she discusses YouTube fame, her practice schedule and dedication (this woman practices 12-14 hours a day and jokes about having no life!), her training in Russia, and even talks about her hands!  I find Valentina absolutely fascinating.  Even if you don't have an interest in classical music, I think you can appreciate her passion and energy for her craft.