Every artist has their muse.
One of the legendary muses in rock history died last week. Marianne Faithfull lived a colorful life – pop star, model, actress, addiction survivor. For all her experiences and accomplishments, she’s probably best known for her intense (and very public) relationship with Mick Jagger in the 1960s.
Legend has it that Faithfull inspired Jagger to write one of The Rolling Stones’ all-time classics when she emerged from a six-day drug-induced coma and said, “wild horses couldn’t drag me away.”
Wild Horses is one of my favorite Stones’ tunes. On one level the song is a beautiful, haunting metaphor about the pain love can cause. Despite the turmoil and heartache of their relationship, the singer acknowledges that their emotional connection is too deep and enduring for him to escape, even if he tried.
Jagger had Faithfull in mind when he sang:
You know I can’t let you
slide through my hands
But don’t worry, I’m not here to bore you with reflections on affairs of the heart. Peak Years is about growing older and getting better in our professional lives. To that end, Wild Horses speaks to the most invaluable trait required to maximize our later years: resilience.
Unless you live a charmed life, you are going to get knocked down once or twice in your career. Even in the best of circumstances, you need deep reserves of emotional, mental and physical stamina to endure and continuously bounce back from the rigors of the daily grind. There will be meetings that don’t go well, pitches that are rejected, bosses who can’t be satisfied and the relentless tyranny of our own unmet expectations.
I’m not a fan of the saying, “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s nice, well-intentioned sentiment but total bullshit. Work, even when it’s doing something you really enjoy, takes effort and exertion. There will be many days you will prefer to stay in bed, play golf, watch Netflix, do anything but go to work. It wouldn’t be called work if it wasn’t hard sometimes. Resilience keeps you going when work gets hard.
Jagger also artfully fuses Wild Horses’ message of resiliency to a lament about the passage of time.
I have my freedom
But I don’t have much time
Time is absolute but our sense of it evolves during our peak years. Acknowledging that there is more sand at the bottom of the hourglass than the top can be sobering and scary. On the other hand, it also can be liberating and exhilarating.
Carpe diem resonates powerfully when you’re closer to the end than the beginning. Why not use the talents and experiences we’ve accumulated to explore new opportunities, take risks and try something new? At this stage of the game, time is too precious to be wasted.
Making the most of the time we have left requires deep reserves of resilience. It takes a willingness to hold on even when the urge to let go is overwhelming, to not take no for an answer, to keep pushing forward regardless of the obstacles.
Finally, despite the song’s melancholy tone, there is an underlying optimism to it. Jagger clearly wants Faithfull to know that he is up for and enjoys the ride, wild and unpredictable as it is.
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild horses, we’ll ride them someday
In terms of career advice, even the most gifted mentor or coach could not have said it better. Here’s hoping Marianne Faithfull is somewhere enjoying the ride on her favorite stallion.
