How Teenage Wisdom—Not Panic—Led to Rock & Roll Fame

Key points

Social insecurity and vulnerability are perfectly normal experiences for most teenagers.

It's how young people respond to their insecurity that will influence their ultimate life outcome.

Trying to make anxiety go away by obsessively doing things for peer approval can lead to an empty life.

Awkward, anxious , vulnerable.

Three more words to describe adolescence . That’s adding to insecure, the single word I chose to summarize teen turbulence in Part 1 of this three-part series that explores the growing-up experience of two rock musicians who steered through those stormy years to successful careers: John Bell and Lee Mars.

Bell is the frontman and founding member of rock group Widespread Panic . Mars is a founding member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Nine Inch N