Great post on Seth's blog today about "How to Fail". As a "Creative" or an entrepreneur, we should be prepared to fail. In fact, we should seek it out. I remember seeing an exhibit on Tim Burton's work a couple of years ago.
I was shocked by the amount of failure. I assumed that once someone became Tim Burton, life was just one success after another. Not so.
Tim fails. A lot. Every year. Still today.
What's different? He keeps launching, keeps going and keeps delivering products. He learns from failure and moves on and eventually he succeeds. Big time.
If you haven't failed lately, then you probably aren't moving towards your big success.
Note: I take this lesson to heart as well. I need to launch a couple of things in the next year so I can fail...or maybe not, but there's only one way to find out.
Showing posts with label failure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label failure. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Thursday, November 18, 2010
How do you respond to failure?
How do you respond to failure? That is the subject of Seth's excellent blog entry today.
He asks the question "When you fail, what happens?"
This is so translatable to artists. So many writers and artists produce prolifically and try to get their work in front of someone. That someone (who the artists gives a huge measure of power by valuing their input, which may not even be the right thing to do, may be the wrong person, etc - subject for another day) then gives some honest feedback. it might be positive, it might be neutral, but let's be honest, it's usually negative, especially for young artists.
What happens next? Artist gets mad, sad, depressed and either ignores the input they so desperately craved or they just give up all together.
What is a better way to deal with failure? Use it to get better! If a student gets a bad grade and uses that to become demotivated, then they've missed the point. It should lead to harder work, more studying, etc.
Use failure as an excuse to work harder and to get better. Not an excuse to give up or be marginalized.
Of course the only person who can tell you what "failure" is, is you anyway, so choose what your "failure" looks like very carefully.
He asks the question "When you fail, what happens?"
This is so translatable to artists. So many writers and artists produce prolifically and try to get their work in front of someone. That someone (who the artists gives a huge measure of power by valuing their input, which may not even be the right thing to do, may be the wrong person, etc - subject for another day) then gives some honest feedback. it might be positive, it might be neutral, but let's be honest, it's usually negative, especially for young artists.
What happens next? Artist gets mad, sad, depressed and either ignores the input they so desperately craved or they just give up all together.
What is a better way to deal with failure? Use it to get better! If a student gets a bad grade and uses that to become demotivated, then they've missed the point. It should lead to harder work, more studying, etc.
Use failure as an excuse to work harder and to get better. Not an excuse to give up or be marginalized.
Of course the only person who can tell you what "failure" is, is you anyway, so choose what your "failure" looks like very carefully.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Failure
Sell any books today? Nah, me neither. I didn't sell any because I don't have any in publication right now. I am working to correct that, and I will get something out there in 2010.
Why am I so sure? Because I have to. I read a quote that reminded me that it is better to have a "failure of ambition" than a "failure of inactivity". I might have been too inactive in 2009. In 2010, if I fail, I want my failure to be that I was too ambitious.
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Why am I so sure? Because I have to. I read a quote that reminded me that it is better to have a "failure of ambition" than a "failure of inactivity". I might have been too inactive in 2009. In 2010, if I fail, I want my failure to be that I was too ambitious.
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