POSITIVITY ALWAYS WINS: 2 Reasons Why Musicians NEED to Maintain a Positive Mindset

Positivity is undervalued in the music industry. With so much attention on “making it”, networking, shedding, music distribution, PR, etc etc etc - it’s easy for positivity to fall by the wayside.

My hypothesis is that all sustainable success as a musician must come from a place of positivity. Even if your music is angry or sad, even if you have a cantankerous personality, you must tap into the immense power of positivity to find real success.

The worst case scenario is success without positivity. Have you ever met a successful person who was a total ass? It's sad and unpleasant to be around.

Misconceptions About Positivity

There are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to maintain a positive mindset, especially as a musician. It doesn’t mean you need to smile all the time or act like a hippie.

It DOES mean being pragmatic and working hard while truly wishing the best for yourself and everybody around you.

It does mean never trying to drag other musicians down, even if they seem to deserve it.

It does mean enjoying your friends’ successes just as much as you enjoy your own.

You can still swear like a sailor, you can still tell it how it is. You just have to be positive in the process.

I’m still pretty early in my career, but I’m also old as fuck in music terms - 26 years old. Most people my age are giving up or getting really weird - but I feel young, I feel happy, and I feel like the next 15 years of my life will be the music career of my dreams.

In this post I am going to refer to many quotes from famous and successful people. It’s not just me who thinks this way - there are so many badass people in the world preaching positivity.

Here are the two reasons why musicians need to maintain a positive mindset.

(1) Music Industry Relationships Are Messy. Positivity Is a Key Principle to Keep Them Healthy

“To blame someone for not understanding you fully is deeply unfair because, first of all, we don’t understand ourselves…” - Alain De Botton, Philosopher & Best Selling Author

_{Alain de Botton}

Musicians are weird. They say that creative genius happens at the brink of insanity, and it’s a fact that many of the greatest artists have a lot of emotional complications, especially in their younger years.

On top of that, many people in this industry are, unfortunately, bitter. There are more than a few booking agents and managers who really crave to be a famous musician, but they got stuck with plan B.

These two factors make it very easy for communication to turn sour in the music world. Bandmates get angry at each other, records don’t get made. Tours turn into nightmares.

If you can bring genuine positivity and empathy to the majority of your music industry interactions, you will be a breath of fresh air in a difficult environment. Musicians fucking love to work with other people who have a decent head on their shoulders.

As success builds for an artist, the temptation to become some kind of “eccentric genius” gets stronger and stronger. It worked for Prince, why not for me? But the truth is, as you become more powerful and successful, your positivity only gains value.

“There are four people in any conversation.” - Tim Ferriss, famous Self-Improvement Guru and early stage Investor

_{Tim Ferriss}

This quote refers to the idea that we all have a conscious and unconscious self. Your conscious self is the part of you that thinks in words and pictures, while your unconscious self is everything that lies beneath.

As we get older, we get more familiar with our unconscious selves. We realize that certain things that seem good on the surface may not actually be good for us on a deep level.

The idea is that every conversation, even if only two people are involved, is already dealing with FOUR different entities: each person’s conscious and unconscious selves all duking it out. That’s insane. Communication is complicated and messy. That’s why having the core principle of positivity is the ONLY WAY to maintain a healthy mindset in the long run.

Anything else eventually falls apart, and then people start acting like assholes by mistake. Don’t let it happen to you - use your positivity as a shield against becoming an ass.

(2) Insulting Other Bands Accomplishes Nothing

“Complaining is a Zero Return Investment” - Gary Vaynerchuk, Entrepreneurial Legend & Future Owner of the New York Jets

_{Gary Vaynerchuk}

There are so many conversations in the music industry that accomplish nothing, other than to insult a bunch of people.

A band goes home from the gig and the whole ride back they shit on the other acts. “That headliner sucked! Who the fuck booked them? We should be more popular than that.” Or, even worse - “That other drummer got the gig because she’s friends with the singer. She’s terrible, it’s a bunch of crap.”

This negative mindset is a convenient way to avoid facing your own demons. It’s a lot easier to tell yourself that your band isn’t popular because “it’s just not fair”.

What the hell does “fair” mean in a music context? It’s all subjective! If somebody is popular, the only pragmatic solution is to try and understand why that is and to apply those lessons to your own life.

“Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world but has not solved one yet.” – Maya Angelou, Poet and Civil Rights Activist

_{Maya Angelou}

We all have our personal limits. I understand that pop bands appeal to a larger audience due to the nature of their music - yet I have no interest in that. I choose to make the exact style of music that excites me. However, I don’t spend one ounce of my time to complain about pop - hell, I listen to all kinds of popular music.

To me, if I know that my style of music is less marketable, that just makes me all the more positive. I have an opportunity to prove everybody else wrong and show that what I’m creating has real value.

I know that people will love the music that I create. I’m working my ass off every day to make that real. I’m also proud as hell of my upcoming record, AND the one after that (which is already close to done) - so how the hell could I have time for negativity.

I also recognize that I’m not shit and that I have a huge huge way to go before I come close to reaching my true potential. That is even more exciting - that I can get EVEN BETTER from here, for decades to come.

Doesn’t that mindset sound rad to you? It does not matter what other bands sound like. I just want to help other hard working people succeed, so that we can all create awesome stuff and give the world beautiful music to enjoy.

I Challenge You To Be More Positive

Here’s a simple challenge: The next time you catch yourself saying negative things about yourself or other musicians, just stop.

That's it. No excuses, no bullshit. JUST LITERALLY STOP IT. It’s not helping you. If you need to express dissatisfaction about something, that is ok - but do it in a constructive way, not as an insult.

Can you think of a time when you maintained a positive mindset during a challenging situation? Did positivity help you in that moment? Please share your story in the comments - I’d love to hear it.