Keynote Speaker Kai Kight Inspires ACRP Members to Dream Big

Kai Kight performing and speaking at the ACRP 2016 Meeting & Expo

Kai Kight knew something was wrong the moment he saw his mother’s face. She’d been crying. She wouldn’t look him in the eye. Finally, she told him the terrible news: She had breast cancer.

“We talked into the night,” the virtuoso violinist told a rapt audience at the ACRP 2016 Meeting & Expo in Atlanta today. As the hours passed that evening, Kai was surprised by the direction the conversation took. “She didn’t talk about her fear of the chemo, or the radiation, or even the surgery.” What was on her mind as she stared cancer in the face? “Regrets.”

Growing up poor, intelligent, and talented, his mother had played it safe to ensure a level of financial success without significant risk. That terrible evening, as mother and son talked well into night, he heard for the first time that she’d always wanted to open a jewelry store or design her own line of clothing. Both high-risk endeavors, her mind was now mulling regrets for the road not taken. Kai learned a lesson that night he wanted to share with ACRP members.

“Don’t just play the notes that other people have written,” he told ACRP members. Instead, ask yourself if “you are writing new music or playing notes of the past?”  Listen to that internal voice telling you that you can do more. You know what? According to Kai Kight, it’s probably right.