In 1946, when Ray Charles heard that Lucky Millinders band was coming to Orlando for a gig, he managed to get an audition. It was his first chance at the big time. This was the band that made records that Ray loved. At the appointed hour, Ray walked in, seated himself at the piano and began to perform, singing and playing with all his might. Millinder sat quietly listening. At the end of the audition, the young musician confidently waited for the praise he knew would be forthcoming. Instead, silence. Then the chilling words: "Ain't good enough, kid."

Ray Charles could not believe he was hearing correctly and asked Millinder what he had just said, hoping he had heard wrong. "You heard me. You don't got what it takes."

Years later, when he told me that story, he still could remember the pain he felt when he heard those words. “I went back to my room and cried for days," he recalled.

And what was the effect of that body blow to the blind musician's career? "It was the best thing that ever happened to me," Ray Charles told me between two sold out shows at a posh club. "After I got over feeling sorry for myself, I went back and started practicing, so nobody would ever say that about me again.
- B. Eugene Griessman, The Achievement Factors