Week 4 Post 2 - Failure and Replenishing
To be successful, one most often experiences failure at least once and then adjusts accordingly to what made them fail, making failure a critical part of learning and the creative process. Failure points you in the right, the necessary direction. The necessary direction requires you to develop a network of authentic connections with people on the same path as you. Conversation skills are essential in this, you need to be able to talk to all kinds of people in whatever area you may be pursuing; club owners, fans, investors, customers, acquaintances, business partners, strangers, etc. Long term relationships in a network are extremely beneficial to your success. Keep in mind that who you are and represent as a person will get funded, rather than the quality of your ideas. Money should not be the primary reason for being an entrepreneur or creative, passion should come first. To gain wisdom and knowledge, try not to be the smartest person in the room. When you stop enjoying what you are doing, change it or move on too something else you enjoy or are passionate about. Productive rest is as important as productive activity, never work yourself too hard. Insights and inspiration come from variety in the skills and activities you engage in, be fascinated by something different that what you usually do. If you are creating a high volume of messy, undefined ideas, silence everything and engage in an activity that requires complete focus and emerge from it with a fresh mind. Always remember to take time off and stay fresh to keep yourself interested and engaged.
In the creative process, failure is something that cannot be avoided and must be embraced. In all creative careers, there will be a low point that requires you to learn how to overcome it and possibly emerge with new ideas. Conversation skills are important to creatives, because you never know what random person could possibly be a great collaborator or business partner. To get yourself out there, you need to make connections with people who support you and can help you grow; this can be investors, producers, collaborators, and even fans. This should go without saying and has been said many times before, but to be creative you should follow you passion, not the money. Money will not make you feel fulfillment in the way that doing what you love will. Focus on the main thing you are trying to do, keep it simple and do not try to branch into other areas you are not genuinely interested in and passionate about. To gain creative insights, engage in creative work that is different that what you usually do. If you are a musician, visit an art museum. If you are a clothing designer, visit some place with interesting architecture. By creating this variety in your life, you will be constantly refreshing yourself and never dwelling too long on one idea. If you are having too many ideas that you are not satisfied with, engage in an activity that requires focus to gain clarity that can be applied to what you are doing.
Do you think you are someone who can embrace failure? Did the course give examples of people who do well with failure in the creative process and it serves as a catalyst for better "products"?
ReplyDeleteI would like to think of myself as someone who can embrace failure but I have never failed at something that greatly impacted my life so I cannot say for certain. The course did not give examples so much as just the concept, but in Creative Quest by Questlove he speaks of an unnamed filmmaker who wrote a book (at a time when he was not a filmmaker yet ) that was adapted into a poor quality film by someone else and critics then did not like his work at all. He became very depressed until he learned how to use this failure to motivate him to become a filmmaker after his books failed. Failure can open one's eyes to a different kind of product that one is capable of creating.
ReplyDeleteDo you think we can teach people to be able to use failure as a teaching tool rather than a rejection? If so, how would you go about that?
ReplyDeleteYes and no. You can tell someone who has not really experienced failure to use failure as a learning opportunity in their life, but they likely will not fully understand the meaning of that until they have failed at whatever they are trying to do. Learning to use failure as a teaching tool will come with experience and maturity, and there would really be no point in going more in depth than simply telling people that failure can be used to learn, just so they understand that it is possible. Once a person realizes that they can use failure as a learning opportunity, they will be able to adapt that concept to whatever they fail in.
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