Creativity Quote by Sly Stone

Sly Stone’s line lands like a pep talk, then lingers like a dare. “You can make it if you try” is the familiar American engine of self-improvement, but he roughs it up with craft: the blunt second-person address, the tight stack of verbs, the incremental pressure. Try. Push. Think. Each clause is a small escalation, turning optimism into instruction and willpower into muscle memory. It’s not dreamy encouragement; it’s choreography for survival.

The subtext is where Sly does his sharpest work. Coming from a Black musician who helped soundtrack the late-’60s and early-’70s collision of hope, backlash, and fatigue, this isn’t naive bootstrapping. It’s a coded acknowledgement that “making it” is never just talent; it’s endurance under conditions other people don’t have to name. “Push a little harder” hints at resistance without listing it, letting the listener supply their own obstacles. “Think a little deeper” adds a sly twist: effort alone isn’t enough, because the system rewards repetition until it doesn’t. Depth becomes strategy.

Context matters because Sly’s music was built on joyful friction: interracial band, utopian grooves, lyrics that smile while they side-eye. This quote operates the same way. It sells possibility in a language mainstream culture already understands, then sneaks in a second message: you’re going to have to outwork the moment and outsmart it. That blend of uplift and edge is exactly why it sticks.