Taylor Swift Says She Had To Learn To Stop Being So Polite

It's tough to make a name for yourself in the entertainment business. Often considered a bit of a cutthroat industry, you can sometimes make enemies before you make friends — especially since everyone and their mother is working to make a name for themselves in the sunny streets of Hollywood. But it took a little while for Taylor Swift to learn not to play nice, by her own admission. As she claimed in a recent piece, Swift needed to tell herself not to be polite to everyone, since being nice to people will get you "in a lot of trouble." Nice gals finish last, after all. Here's what Swift had to say about excusing pleasantries in a town where niceness can be rare.

This revealing tidbit came from Taylor Swift's recent article with Elle, where she detailed the 30 lessons she learned before she turns 30. The well-known, best-selling musician's big birthday isn't until December, so she hasn't reached the milestone just yet. But with her final months in her 20s currently winding down, Swift wanted to provide some useful information that she learned as a world-famous musician who grew into super-stardom at a young, impressionable age.

When you rise into stardom, you often have to be nice to the right people. But as Taylor Swift admits, when you have fandom galore and you find yourself in trouble when you are nice to almost everyone, you have to learn to be less polite and a little more resilient and independent. As Swift writes in this tip-filled article, you have to "trust your gut," then you have to "grow a backbone" and be "like a snake" — which is seemingly a pointed reference to a common theme in her latest album, Reputation — and know when you have to "strike back." Otherwise, you are often filled with regrets about the people who take "advantage" of this personality trait.

It should be noted that Taylor Swift doesn't make a point of naming anyone directly who did her wrong over the years leading up to her pending 30s. But, it's safe to say that Swift is often a personal and honest musician, so it won't be hard for fans of the star to pick a name or two of people who haven't always been super nice to the megastar. In any case, Swift has lived and she has learned. While she doesn't want to be rude, Taylor Swift also knows that being nice can also lead to poisonous behavior in others. So, you have to know when to be nice and when, like a snake, you have to strike back.