Sarah’s Thoughts: Dolly Parton & The Genius of Being Underestimated

Sarah Grynberg (0:02)

A few weeks ago, we unfortunately lost Dolly Parton, and everyone's been talking about the songs, but nobody is saying the real thing. She was one of the smartest people in every room she ever walked into, and she spent her whole life letting people think she was just a pretty voice. So let's start with where she came from, because people do forget this. She was one of 12 kids growing up dirt poor in rural Tennessee. Twelve, that is 12 kids. She used to say that she had to fight just to get noticed in her own house. So she picked up a little guitar and made herself impossible to ignore. That's where it started. A poor kid from nowhere who decided she was going to be someone, and she made it bigger than almost anyone. But here's what people miss. They saw the big hair, the rhinestones and her gorgeous giggle and the tight clothes, and they decided she was sweet but simple, talented obviously, but not serious, not someone that we should be watching closely. And she let them think it. That was the genius of Dolly Parton. While the whole industry was busy underestimating her, she was quietly running rings around every single one of them. Here is the one that stops me cold when I think about her. Right at the start of her career, this young woman with no money and no power set up her own company so that she owned every song she ever wrote. Nobody was doing that at all back then. Artists signed their rights away all the time and never thought twice. She didn't, she held on to hers. Then the biggest star on the planet came calling, Elvis Presley, who wanted to record one of her songs. This was her actual dream, the thing she wanted her whole life. It was all set to happen and the night before, his manager rang and said, fine, Elvis will record it, but he takes half your publishing, half of it forever.

And she said, no, she said no to Elvis Presley and she cried all night. She said it broke her heart, but she said no and she kept her song.

Now, here's the payoff. Years later, Whitney Houston recorded that exact same song. It became one of the biggest selling singles of all time. And because Dolly never handed over those rights, that one decision made her hundreds of millions of dollars.

One no, one moment where she refused to give away what was hers just to make a powerful man happy.

So that's the whole thing right there. Everyone assumed the wig meant she wasn't paying attention, but I can tell you she was paying more attention than anyone in the building. Being underestimated wasn't her weakness, it was her strategy. Nobody saw her coming because nobody thought they had to. And she didn't just sit on the money either. She grew up watching her own dad who couldn't read or write, who felt ashamed his whole life. So she started a programme that has now given more than 100 million books to kids who couldn't afford them. The woman they wrote off as a bit of fluff quietly became one of the most generous people in the country because she knew exactly what she had and she knew exactly what to do with it. So here's what I take from Dolly.

Know what you're worth, really know it. And then don't give it away just to be liked or to be polite or to make someone more powerful feel comfortable. Not even when the person asking is the king, not even when saying no breaks your heart a little. Let them underestimate you, let them, and then quietly go and own the whole thing.

Like Dolly herself said, figure out who you are and do it on purpose. She did exactly that right to the very end.

Let's continue this journey together via my weekly newsletter. Head over to Substack and search Sarah Grynberg where I share deeper insights and reflections that go beyond the episodes.

My book Living A Life Of Greatness is out now. In it, I open up about my own journey and share actionable tips to help you live your own life of greatness. You can grab a copy on Amazon or at your favourite bookstore.

Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Just Search Sarah Grynberg to watch videos of all my episodes. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. There are so many amazing episodes on the way, you don't want to miss them. Links to everything I've just mentioned can be found in this episode show notes.