Patrick Swayze, the popular star of movie hits such as Ghost, Dirty Dancing, Point Break, Road House, Red Dawn, and The Outsiders, has passed away at age 57.

I don’t want to write a standard obituary here. There’s a wealth of information on him all over the Internet where you can read the details of his life, career, and death. And I’m not going to come on here and proclaim myself Swayze’s number one fan, although I was always very fond of him as an actor.

Instead, I do want to point out what kind of inspiration he turned out to be in his final years. Not only had he started to branch out into new areas of acting such as voice overs (he voiced a major role in Disney’s direct-to-video sequel hit, The Fox and the Hound 2), but he kept working all the way through his devastating battle with pancreatic cancer. For those of you who don’t know, pancreatic cancer is one of the most terminal forms of the disease, with a particularly high mortality rate. Despite announcing his illness in March of 2008, Swazye continued to act, starring in A&E’s hit cop drama The Beast. In fact, it’s reported that he refused to take painkillers while filming the 2009 series, unwilling to take the edge off of his performance.

I think it’s pretty impressive that a star of Swayze’s caliber, who could have easily spent his last few years just relaxing and enjoying life, instead chose to continue working in the art he’d been working in for decades. Critics were impressed by Swayze’s performance on The Beast, and audiences responded as well. This was a man driven to continue to perform to the best of his ability, despite the fact that he was battling a painful disease the entire time. It makes you realize how strong people can be when they put their mind to something.

Patrick Swayze was a talented actor, singer, and dancer and seemed like an all-around nice guy. His talent, drive, and determination will surely be missed by film fans around the world.

The British Invasion continues… some 40-plus years after it originally started.

Chances are pretty good that you’ve heard by now… The Beatles are back! Tomorrow, on 09/09/09, the world will be treated to two big, exciting new Beatles releases: The Beatles Remastered CD catalogue and The Beatles: Rock Band. For those of you who don’t know about these projects, let me fill you in a little.

The Beatles Remastered CD catalogue is exactly what it sounds like. Every original CD released by The Beatles has been remastered in stereo and is being released with arguably the best sound quality we’ve ever heard from the Fab Four’s original recordings. The Beatles: Rock Band is a new video game in the popular Rock Band series that allows players to play guitar, bass & drums, and sing along with The Beatles. Both of these releases have garnered a lot of media attention, and are expected to sell millions of dollars worth of units over the coming weeks and months.

Which got me thinking. If, let’s say, U2 were to put out an entirely remastered catalogue and a new video game, it would probably get a little attention from the press. They are, after all, currently one of the biggest rock bands in the world. But would a large number of radio stations across the country interrupt their normal programming for “U2 Days” like they’re doing for the Beatles? Doubtful. Would almost every major entertainment magazine feature them on their cover in the days and weeks leading up to the release? I don’t think so. Why? Because The Beatles were the biggest and most monumental music group in history, and I don’t think we’ll ever see another group come along that will come even close to achieving the kind of popularity, longevity, and cultural significance that they managed to.

So why bother, right? I mean, if you’re an up and coming rock band, and you know you’re likely never to be as big as The Beatles, why even try? What’s the point?

That’s an attitude that a lot more people adopt than you might think. A lot of people figure, “If I can’t reach the very top and be number one, then it’s just not worth even bothering.”

I don’t subscribe to that theory. Don’t get me wrong; I think you should strive to be the best that you can be, and of course you want to be as successful as possible. But I think it’s important to remember that there are varying levels of success. You need to decide what’s important to you. Is it important to you to be as successful as someone like, say, the late Don LaFontaine? If so, then that’s a terrific goal. But what if it’s more important to you to simply make a nice additional income from your voice over work? Or what if what’s most important to you is getting work providing voice overs for audiobooks, or museum tours, or awards shows?

Whatever it is, building success requires having a goal. That goal can be as big as they come, as small as you want it to be, or anywhere in between. But it’s up to you to decide what that goal is.

In fact, I think the Beatles said it best themselves in their song “Think For Yourself” on the Rubber Soul album:

The future still looks good,
And you’ve got time to rectify
All the things that you should.
Do what you want to do,
And go where you’re going to.