Why Talented People Fail and Tenacious People Don't (The U2 Roadie Who Proved It)

**Kayvon Kay** (0:00)
A psychologist once told today's guest that it would be easier for him to grab a red hot stove and hold on than to actually try at anything. That was the diagnosis, an extreme fear of failure. He flunked out of college. He waited tables at a highway Howard Johnson's. Then a U2 tour bus rolled into the parking lot and changed everything.
Scott Scoville quit his jobs, sold his car, and spent five weeks living in a pick up truck, sneaking into U2 shows with a fake pass working for free.
Three years later, he was on tour with the Rolling Stones, the biggest tour in the world. Today, he runs video for the biggest names in country music. He just opened for Brad Paisley in Norway, and he wrote a book called Tenacious with contributions from Garth Brooks, Peter Frampton, and Alan Jackson. This episode is about the one trait every one of those names credits for their success. It is not talent. This is The Vault Unlocked. Let's unlock it.

**Kayvon Kay** (1:14)
This is a story about tenacity.
How about a young man who traveled and chased U2 across the country, ended up on stages in opening up for Brad Paisley. I'm excited to hear this story because I think everybody needs to hear it. Today, we're going behind the vault about how you can make your dreams come true. Scott, welcome, welcome, welcome. Welcome to the show.

**Scott Scoville** (1:45)
It is so good to be here.

**Kayvon Kay** (1:47)
So I can't wait. Where do we begin?

**Scott Scoville** (1:50)
Well, I guess we could begin at Rock Bottom. That's a great place to start any story, right? As a kid, I barely graduated high school. My teachers literally got together with me and said, we think we're going to push you out.
I went on to college, I flunked out of college, and at that same time, I was diagnosed with such an extreme fear of failure, my psychologist said, it would be easier for you to grab a red hot stove and hang on and maim yourself than to actually try. Powerful, crazy diagnosis, but it felt right. Every time I tried to do my homework, I'd end up in tears. I just couldn't apply myself. And that put me in a pretty dark place because my fear of failure had me flunking out of college, had me actually failing. It was manifesting my worst fear. And I end up waiting tables at Howard Johnson's on the side of the highway, not my dream job. And I wasn't even a very good waiter, but this amazing tour bus rolls in with a space shuttle painted on the side of it. And I'm like, I want to wait on them. I honestly thought they worked for NASA. Like why the space shuttle? I didn't know what a tour bus was. I was really disappointed when they walked off the bus and they all were wearing black and had long hair. I'm like, they don't look like they work for NASA. But I took their drink orders and said, why the bus? And one of them in the thickest of Irish accents goes, we work for the band U2. We put on the show.
That blew my mind. And I had a million questions. And I'm like, I don't understand. How can you work for the band U2? What do you mean? I would have thought you had to be Bono's cousin to do that. And the guy in charge laughs and he goes, Scott, seven of us are the very best in the world at what we do. We put on the show, the lights, the sound. He puts his arm around the guy next to him and goes, and this is AJ. He's Bono's cousin. And so everyone starts laughing. And they revealed to me a world that was incredible. And finally, after a million questions, they said, we have to go. Why don't you just come to the next show and we'll answer more of your questions. Yes. So I go to that show, I have a million more questions. I'm so fascinated about, they introduced me to Bono and Edge, and I was more interested in their career that I had discovered than the fact that I just met two of my heroes. I was like, what?
Lights went out, crowd went nuts. I'm standing in the middle of 15,000 screaming fans and I had a paradigm shift. This is what you're going to do with your life. You love music, you love technology, you love travel. Oh my gosh, you're going to see the world with U2.
A moment later, my heart sank when I realized to do any of this, I was going to have to try.