Why Real Resilience Is Built Through Community, Not Grit
When we talk about resilience, we often picture toughness.
We imagine pushing through setbacks, standing back up after rejection, and finding the grit to keep going when things don't work out. As musicians, we know this story well. Auditions don't go our way. Opportunities disappear. Progress stalls. Careers rarely follow a straight path.
But what if resilience isn't simply about being tougher?
I recently came across an article by Eric Markowitz, author of Outlast, that challenged how we think about resilience. His research into some of the world's longest-lasting organizations led to a surprising conclusion:
"If you optimize a system for a perfectly sunny day, that system will inevitably shatter the moment it starts to rain."
The idea is simple: resilience isn't about creating something that never struggles. It's about creating something that can adapt when challenges inevitably arrive.
The Forest Lesson
Markowitz points to the forest as an example.
A forest isn't resilient because every individual tree is exceptionally strong. It's resilient because of what happens beneath the surface. Trees communicate through underground fungal networks, share resources, and respond collectively to threats. When one area is damaged, the surrounding ecosystem adapts.
The lesson?
Resilience is an ecosystem, not just a character trait.
For musicians, that changes everything.
Three Lessons for Musicians
1. Sustainable Growth Beats Rapid Growth
The systems that last rarely chase constant expansion. Instead, they focus on steady, sustainable progress.
The same is true in music. Long-term careers are often built through consistent growth rather than dramatic leaps.
2. Relationships Matter More Than Efficiency
Many of us try to optimize every minute of every day. But resilience suffers when relationships become expendable in the pursuit of productivity.
Community, mentorship, collaboration, and support are not distractions from success—they are often the foundation of it.
3. Excellence Lives in Maintenance
Resilience isn't usually built through grand transformations.
It's built through the unglamorous work repeated over time: long tones, scales, careful preparation, recovery, reflection, and showing up again tomorrow.
The discipline of maintenance often matters more than moments of motivation.
Building Your Own Resilience Ecosystem
As I reflected on this idea, a few things stood out:
- Finding a small but meaningful community of mentors, collaborators, and trusted peers.
- Letting go of the need to optimize every second of the day.
- Committing to the small, repetitive habits that support long-term growth.
- Learning to be patient when results aren't immediately visible.
None of these things are particularly exciting.
But together, they create the conditions that allow growth to continue through uncertainty, setbacks, and change.
Resilience isn't about standing alone against the storm.
It's about building the relationships, habits, and systems that help you weather it.
How will you use this idea in your practice? In your career? In your life?
Here's the full article, if you'd like to read it.
Speaking of resilience, there's someone I want you to meet.
Jason Denner is a clarinetist who came out of CCM, moved to Germany, built a thriving career and founded a chamber orchestra. Having trained on the French clarinet system he rebuilt his entire technical foundation around the German system. Different keywork, different mouthpiece, ligature, different everything. A new country, a new language, a new professional culture.
Jason is joining us on Saturday, June 7 at 10am ET for a free workshop called "Phrasing is Everything." He'll dig into what phrasing actually means: not just dynamics, but articulation, accents, color, tone quality, tempo, balance.
"Anything you can change, you can use to express the music more fully. Knowing when and what to change comes from understanding how the music is built, where it needs to go, and how tension gathers before it releases."
He'll also take questions about building a meaningful life in music, making real connections, and what it looked like to root himself somewhere new.
It's free and open to all musicians.
In your corner,
Ixi
P.S. Full article: "What 1,000-Year-Old Companies Know About Resilience" by Eric Markowitz, Big Think.
JUNE 7, 2026 10 am ET
Phrasing Workshop with Jason Denner
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Free to attend with registration. Are you in? YES I AM << click to save your seat.
