If you hear it, you can play it.
Practical advice for escaping corporate life, inspired by music and neuroscience.
Photo by Anastasiya Badun
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Sharon's Story: The Corporate Dilemma
Yesterday, I had a long talk with my niece, Sharon. She’s a super-bright chemical engineering graduate from the Technion, Israel’s MIT. After college, she joined an environmental startup that developed an API for broadcasting air quality data worldwide. Their work was promising, and eventually, Google acquired the startup.
But three years into her Google career, Sharon is wondering if she has a future there. Google, like many corporations, is quietly cutting staff and projects. What would have taken an hour at her startup now takes a month, bogged down in layers of planning and approval.
Sharon told me she doesn’t feel “qualified” to stay—she doesn’t have an MS or PhD in computer science. That, to me, sounded like a paradox after contributing to Google for 3 years. Sharon, like so many talented professionals, feels trapped in corporate politics.
Lessons from the Saxophone
I’ve been playing the alto saxophone a lot these days, working on my tone, technique, and sight-reading. I’m tackling the Charlie Parker Omnibook, piece by piece, mastering the solos. I’m not as fast as Parker—my best is around 60% of his original tempo for charts like Mohawk—but that doesn’t matter as much as tone.
When you play a wind instrument like the sax, your tone is you.
You are your tone.
This may sound abstract, but it’s true: your sound is a reflection of who you are. If you don’t have control of the instrument, you can’t produce a beautiful sound. Frustration leads to tension, which only worsens your playing.
It all starts with one basic idea:
When you finger a middle F, you must hear it in your head first.
You need to play middle F for a month in front of a wall to build tone and control.
What neuroscience teaches us about sound and vision
From a neuroscience perspective, imagining a sound before playing it activates a precise interplay between sensory, motor, and auditory systems in the brain. This process, called auditory imagery, creates a mental blueprint for the sound you want to produce. It’s like giving your motor system a target to aim for.
Through practice, the brain strengthens the connection between auditory imagery and motor execution via neuroplasticity — the brain's ability to adapt and rewire itself. Over time, this makes the imagined sound and the produced sound more closely aligned.
The brain operates as a prediction machine.
When you hear the sound in your brain first:
It creates an expectation of the result.
The brain uses this prediction to prepare motor commands and interpret sensory feedback.
This predictive coding ensures smooth and accurate performance.
The same principles apply to life. To create something new—a career, a business, or a way of living—you must first hear it in your mind. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t make it real. The clearer the image in your head, the more likely you are to succeed.
Play a New Song in Your Life
If you’re frustrated by corporate politics, endlessly stuck in meetings, and spending a month on tasks you could do in an hour, you’re not alone.
But here’s the truth:
You can play a different song. You just need to hear it first.
Imagine your ideal life.
What would it look like? Where would you work? What kind of problems would you solve? What kind of people would you surround yourself with? At first, the answers may feel unclear or even impossible. But, like playing the saxophone, this vision gets stronger with practice.
Finding Your Sound
If you want to learn the saxophone, you need a teacher to show you the basics: fingering, breathing, and embouchure. At first, your playing will sound awful. But with daily practice, you’ll start to hear notes that sound like music. Over time, you’ll develop a beautiful tone.
Creating a new life works the same way.
You need a guide to show you how to design your move, refine your timing, and open doors to the right opportunities.
With practice, you’ll hear the right options in your mind and take the steps to make them real.
What lights you up?
As Sharon and I talked, I asked her to think about what lights her up. Is she a manager, a creator, a founder, or a consumer?
Managers excel at orchestrating people and systems. They thrive on structure and supervision.
Founders are visionaries who love creating something new and thrive on execution.
Creators focus on their craft, managing only themselves.
Consumers know what they want and enjoy engaging with the world.
Knowing where you fit is the first step to finding your independence.
Imagine It, Then Create It
Start imagining the life you want. If you hear it, you can play it.
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References
The rule “Practice middle F for a month in front of a wall” came from Joe Viola, a legendary saxophone educator at Berklee.
Jason Fox’s mindset video inspired this essay. Watch it here: Jason Fox on YouTube.