Have you ever considered how the skills you’ve learned in one area affect how you operate in a seemingly unrelated area of your life? It could be from playing an instrument, a sport, making art, or something else.
I was recently a guest on a podcast, Founders Music Lab, a show focused on founders, creatives, and musicians. The hosts were interested in having me on because of my experience building startups, so they were surprised to learn about my musical background.
Music has always been a big part of my life, but it’s something I generally keep quite private. I enjoy playing piano as a way to relax, and occasionally play with close friends. I even spent some time working in a neuroscience and music lab, but that’s a story for another day!
Our conversation on the podcast made me reflect on how much music has influenced my entrepreneurial journey in a way that I hadn’t connected the dots before. Here are a few things that stand out that music has taught me that are useful for entrepreneurship:
1. Persistence: How to stick through the suck
When you first sit down in front of a piece of music that’s just above your ability, it can initially feel impossible. Anyone who has learned an instrument (or has lived with someone learning) knows this phase well. It’s messy and frustrating. You fumble your way through and it feels like you’ll never get it. You have to break down the piece into smaller chunks and painstakingly repeat the same parts over and over again, especially the particularly challenging ones. The worst part is that for a (long) while, it feels like you’re putting in the work but not getting any better.
This is exactly how entrepreneurship feels in the beginning: it’s messy, everything is hard, and there’s very little (if any) validation that you’re making progress or even working on the right things. In the early stages especially, progress is slow and non-linear, and you question your decisions.
It’s easy to want to give up here, and some people do.
But just like in music, if you stick with the suck long enough, sooner or later something clicks. Persistence pays off. Seemingly out of nowhere, the piece starts to flow together more smoothly and all the work you did starts to come together. The tune starts to feel playable, and eventually the entire piece comes together smoothly… and one day it’s hard to even remember why it felt so out of reach in the first place.
Just like learning a piece of music, the messy phase of uncertainty can feel like failing for quite some time, but it’s really just part of the process… and the only way through is consistency: to keep showing up, repetition, trying things on, and if you stick with it long enough things start to move.
2. It has to be FUN
Whether it’s a piece of music or a business, you’re only going to stay with it long enough if it’s enjoyable.
Practice takes a lot of discipline, and there are a lot of frustrating days. But at its core, there’s so much JOY in playing an instrument: joy in learning, in expression, in getting better with time, and in sharing it with others. Without the JOY, no amount of willpower would keep you coming back to continuously put in the work.
Entrepreneurship is the same: building something is hard and takes a ton of work, and not every moment is fun. But if there’s no curiosity, sense of play, or enjoyment of the process itself, you’re headed for burnout. FUN is an integral part of the process, not just a “distraction” from doing serious work. After all, the founders who last are the ones who find ways to make the work engaging and meaningful, not the ones pushing and grinding their way through.
3. Learn the rules well enough to break them (in a good way)
There are two ways to play a piece of music: mechanically (perfectly, as written) or with expression (with your own twist). When you’re first learning a piece, it’s important to get the fundamentals down and follow the structure. Many musicians do well to play the piece precisely as written. But the best artists are those who master their craft, and then add their own expression, “painting outside of the lines” so to speak.
Of course it’s important to learn how to play or do things properly, especially in the beginning. But the most interesting and successful companies aren’t built by blindly following playbooks. Understand the rules deeply enough to bend them intentionally and imagine different ways of doing things that others don’t see.
Entrepreneurship is inherently creative, and creativity isn’t ignoring structure.. it’s about mastering it so you can do something new with it.
Bonus: Playing with others is where the magic happens
There’s a certain magic, a special kind of energy, that shows up when people come together to create and each person is in their element. When people genuinely love what they’re doing and when they’re operating in their own form of art, collaboration reaches another level of creativity. There’s nothing more fun than building with people who care deeply about their work and are really good at it. The project picks up momentum and ideas compound to the point where the outcome is much greater than the sum of its parts, and the process itself is rewarding. It’s like when you’ve got a running joke with friends and the joke keeps building until you’re laughing so hard you can hardly talk anymore. THIS is the best kind of flow and creativity that I’m interested in, whether it’s music, art, or building businesses.
So there you have it! There are several connections between two seemingly unrelated things.. and we haven’t even gotten into the neuroscience behind it yet. Playing an instrument is excellent training for how to approach hard problems, creative work, and collaboration.
Tell me in the comments below: What lessons have you learned from something seemingly unrelated that you’ve applied in another area of your life?
