In 1974, Dolly Parton — who has written more than 3,000 songs — was ecstatic when Elvis Presley wanted to record a cover of her latest hit, “I Will Always Love You.” But Presley’s manager told Parton the deal could only move forward if she signed away half the song’s publishing rights. “I cried all night,” she said about declining the offer, one of the smartest decisions of her career. Within the next 18 years, the song made two major film appearances: Parton sang a rendition in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982) and Whitney Houston made the ballad one of the biggest recordings of all time via “The Bodyguard” (1992). Before Parton, no artist had garnered two No. 1 records with the same song, let alone three as a writer — and she kept all her royalties. As Parton acknowledges in this quote, sadness is finite, and enduring hardship is necessary to appreciate life’s joys.