Make the high worth the pain.

A lesson from our lord and saviour, Taylor Swift.

👋🏼 Hi, my name is Anna Mackenzie, and I am a Taylor Swift fanatic.

I’m also a founder and operator in an ongoing relationship with writing. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share business, career and life lessons that I’ve learned over years of trying hard, failing often, dusting myself off and improving until I succeed.

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Last Friday night, along with 96,000 of my closest friends, I attended The Era’s Tour in Melbourne. Engulfed in an undulating sea of sequins, tassels, diamantés, friendship bracelets and pure joy, I sang and danced for three and a half hours straight until my feet ached and my throat turned red raw.

As I’ve been battling the post-Swiftie blues, I’ve thought deeply about the lessons to be drawn from Taylor’s success. Over the last decade she’s propelled herself from a niche country music scene onto the global stage - becoming Spotify’s most streamed female artist of 2024, Time’s Person of the Year and a legit billionaire. But she hasn’t had it easy. The cost of fame, fortune and success is great.

• In 2009 Kanye infamously stole her moment at the MTV Music Video Awards by interrupting her acceptance speech and claiming that Beyonce deserved to win instead.

• In 2016 she was unfairly labelled a snake and cancelled after another run in with Kanye and the Kardashian Industrial Complex.

• In 2017 she was groped by a radio host and sued for defamation while reporting him.

• In 2019 the rights to six of Taylor’s albums - her life’s work - were bought by Scooter Braun, her arch nemesis and someone who had bullied her incessantly throughout her career, against her will.

• Armed stalkers have rocked up to her NYC apartment on more than one occasion.

This is the tip of the iceberg of her champagne problems, yet most of us could never imagine going through one of these incidents let alone all of them. It’s more than most people deal with in a lifetime. Or in a hundred lifetimes.

But here she is in 2024 at the peak of her career. She’s turned every betrayal into a marketing moment. Every break up into a chart topping album. She’s found opportunity amongst the ashes of every smouldering fire.

And these days when she walks in a room, she makes the whole place shimmer.

You might wake up screaming from dreaming.

Big dreams are exciting. They bring hope, adventure, energy and passion. But big dreams also draw blood. They cause hell. It’s fucking cold out here at the edge of your comfort zone, people.

• Starting a business? You will probably go into debt.

• Putting your creative ideas into the world? Prepare to be judged or laughed at.

• Raising your hand for a promotion? You may get rejected.

• Doing a presentation at work? You may forget your slides and stumble over your words.

• Lusting after stardom and fame? Get ready for stalkers to rock up to your house.

Pain is inevitable, especially for those of us charting non-traditional paths. And when pain arrives, we can let it destroy us, allowing it to bleed into every area of life. It can poison our work, relationships and creativity, making us bitter, angry and sad. We can have a marvellous time ruining everything around us.

I’ve learned this lesson the hard way; that stressing and obsessing is not only not productive, it’s destructive. I’ve let the pressure of running a business seep into my relationships, creativity and health. I’ve felt the weight of the world on my shoulders and not known how to shake it off. The pain has waged a warpath across my life.

But there is another way. We can make a different choice. To dress the gaping wound rather than allowing the blood to gush. To turn hard into hope. And to use it to our advantage.

According to the gospel of Taylor Swift, here are four steps for turning despair into joy and pain into potential:

1. Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. Take a moment before reacting. You need to calm down.

2. Weep in a sunlit room. Feel the pain. Wallow in it if you have to. But not for long. Not forever.

3. Shake it off. Then find an opportunity and plan your next move.

4. Act upon the plan with strength, resilience and courage. Make the high worth the pain.

You’re built to fall apart and fall back together.

Next time you’re deep in the hole of misery or stress, remember this.

There’s a life changing opportunity hiding in the depths of the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. In losing it all. In going all in and failing loudly. In being fired. In firing someone else. In taking a risk that doesn’t pay off. Even in realising the ownership of your life’s work has fallen into the hands of your arch nemesis.

The opportunity is there if you’re willing to look. And once you find it, you need to grab it. Then harness it like a mastermind. Turn your suffering into art. Your triggers into triumphs.

And when you’re going through the worst of it all, remember that your best era is yet to come.

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🙏🏽 Please help!

Multiple people have suggested I change up the day I publish this newsletter. Apparently Friday mornings suck? If I were to change when I publish, when would you like to receive this newsletter in your inbox?

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👀 Bonus points…

…for everyone who found the 13 lyric references in the piece above. Did you spot them?

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