Music: The Background Score of Our Journeys
Every professional has a soundtrack. Maybe it was the mixtape you made before your first college exam. Maybe it was the CD you played on repeat during your morning commute to your first job. Or perhaps it was the playlist that got you through long work nights, helping you focus when deadlines felt endless.
Music isn’t just entertainment—it’s memory, motivation, and sometimes survival. In our corporate journeys, it often feels like the unseen colleague sitting beside us, reminding us who we are and where we’ve come from.
Mixtapes: Patience, Craft, and Connection
In the 80s and 90s, making a mixtape was an exercise in patience. Waiting for the right song on the radio, pressing record at the perfect moment, carefully curating the order—it was time-consuming, deliberate, and deeply personal.
Isn’t that a lot like how we build our careers? Slowly, intentionally, adding pieces along the way. Just as mixtapes carried hidden messages of love or friendship, our early professional choices carried the tone of who we wanted to become.
CDs and the Corporate Hustle
Then came the era of CDs—sleek, efficient, easier to duplicate. Burning a CD was quicker than making a mixtape, but it still took effort.
This mirrors the early years of corporate life. We moved faster, gained new tools, and learned how to share our “professional playlists” more widely. We carried our CDs to parties the same way we carried our skills to boardrooms—hoping they would be noticed, hoping they would resonate.
iPods: A Thousand Songs, A Thousand Choices
The iPod changed everything. Suddenly, we could carry thousands of songs in our pockets. Shuffle introduced us to surprises.
For many of us, this paralleled our mid-career phase. Opportunities multiplied. Choices expanded. Networking, projects, promotions—the shuffle of corporate life introduced new experiences we never imagined in our mixtape days.
But with abundance came a challenge: how do you choose what really matters? Just as some songs got lost in the shuffle, some ambitions did too.
Spotify: Always Connected, Yet Less Personal
Today, playlists on Spotify are quick to make, easy to share, and instantly available. They’re convenient—but they don’t always carry the personal effort of a mixtape.
In many ways, our professional world feels the same. We’re always connected, always accessible. LinkedIn updates, emails, pings on Teams or Slack—it’s efficient, global, but often less personal. The question is: do we still take the time to make our “corporate mixtapes”? The thoughtful connections, the mentoring, the handwritten notes of encouragement that outlast the digital noise?
Why Nostalgia Matters for Professionals
Nostalgia isn’t just about missing the past—it’s about remembering what gave us meaning.
For professionals, revisiting those old songs is a reminder of how far we’ve come. The mixtape you made in your teens? That was creativity. The CDs you carried to college? That was confidence. The playlists you stream today? That’s adaptability.
Music reminds us that while formats change, the essence remains. And so does our career journey—roles change, industries evolve, but the values and memories that shaped us stay.
Final Thought: Your Professional Playlist
From rewinding tapes with pencils to scrolling through Spotify playlists, the way we consume music has transformed. But one thing hasn’t: music keeps us grounded.
So the next time you hit play on an old song, pause and ask yourself: What part of my professional story does this song remind me of?
Because sometimes, the lessons we need in the corporate world aren’t in a meeting room—they’re hidden in the soundtrack of our own lives.
🌱 Grow through what you go through.
✨ Dwell in Everyday…
Dwell in Everyday 