Why Was Shaan Puri's Singing Teacher Afraid to Sing?

Shaan Puri's singing teacher did not sing until high school. He was afraid to sing and thought he could not. He grew up a black guy in a city where black guys like him played football, and singing was treated as gay, something you do not do. He got made fun of, assumed he must be bad, and felt even worse for liking singing than for being bad at it, so he shut it down.

After he moved schools, he waited for his ride in an empty practice room while talent show auditions went on. He liked the song and sang along. The choir teacher poked her head in and asked if it was him. He asked her to be honest about whether he could sing, and she asked who told him he could not. He has been on American Idol. He needed that choir teacher to give him permission to do the thing he really wanted to do inside. Shaan Puri asked whether he had always wanted to sing. The teacher said it was killing him. He had not realized it and had thought not singing was just what life was. Once he started, a weight came off, because not doing the thing he was called to do had been killing him.

Shaan Puri says fear is the only reason a person skips what they are called to do. Ask why enough times and the answer is fear of failure. One more why, and underneath sits a fear of not being enough and of not being loved. Nobody says that part out loud, but it is the true part under the fear of failure. Stress is a fancy word for fear and a code word for fear. Anxiety is a code word for fear. Procrastination is a code word for fear. Everybody has it.