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Grand Accomplishment

Nothing of great enduring value comes without pain and effort as this story about a 97 year old pianist signing a record label reiterates. 

According to her memoir, Forbidden Childhood, Slenczynska was made to practise all 24 Études before breakfast every morning by her father, Josef Slenczynski, who was a skilled violinist.

It makes for a simple scale of comparison to the lives of other children and youth. For many it is ceaseless struggle for the parent to even wake them up on time for breakfast and get them to eat something healthy. If the kid is able to wake up on time to eat a healthy breakfast and go to school that would be an accomplishment in many homes. 

That's one level of effort and then there is playing twenty-four Chopin Etudes before breakfast every morning. Based on what we see in the world, the overwhelming majority never even got to playing even one of those Etudes every day. So its no surprise the accomplishments are not nearly as grand or enduring in the end. 

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