Winning streaks don’t last forever. It doesn’t happen in sport and it doesn’t happen in music either. Artists might have a commercial come back in between.

Aerosmith did it.

They had success in the 70’s, then barely survived their addictions by the end of that decade. In the early 80’s no one cared about em and when MTV started to rule culture, Aerosmith was absent until the Run DMC collaboration and then “Permanent Vacation” gave them another winning title. And this kept rolling with “Pump”, “Get A Grip” and “Nine Lives”. Another decade on top between 1987 and 1997 and then it started to dissipate again.

The draw they had in the live arena didn’t translate to high sales of their newer material. And like evert artist who had public acceptance of their music in the record label gatekeeper model, they didn’t know where they fitted in, post Napster. So they withheld their new music for a long time, until they released it (the “Music From Another Dimension” album in 2012) and no one cared about it, to talk or write about it.

But they did enough in their revivals to have a 50 year career in the music business.

Twisted Sister battled hard to get a record deal and make it. They finally got to the top with “Stay Hungry” and their cultural MTV anthems, only to disappear three years later in 1987, to resurface again almost 15 years later in 2002.

So the line from one spot to a better spot is rarely straight. It has its ups and downs and arcs. Even the hard work and the slog doesn’t last forever. Because every day you will be faced with opportunities, which are more or less problems that need to be solved. And you will have a choice, do nothing or to work through the problem.

Imagine if bands like Ratt, Dokken, White Lion and Skid Row worked through their problems instead of breaking up.

What would they be like today?

Because moving on and working towards something better is a habit and if you don’t have that habit, you might miss the chance that appears.