Many people talk about failures as opportunities to learn. Saying this seems to make people feel wise and worldly.
Well, I say bollocks to failure.
Don’t dwell on it.
Move on.
Forget it.
If you’re genuinely creative and trying to create work that hasn’t been seen before, that is really fresh, then you will have to contend with other peoples’ doubts. All too often your idea will be greeted with ‘Oh, that’s really different…’ or ‘I haven’t seen that before.’
Of course, it’s different.
That’s what makes it great.
Here’s the problem with dwelling on past failures: When faced with these doubting voices, suddenly you too will start to doubt your idea. You will start to think, ‘Perhaps, they’re right. Perhaps, this isn’t as great as I thought it was. Perhaps, I should do something that’s more familiar…’
Chances are that your idea does not work. But even so that’s the risk you have to take if you want to create great work. Being ordinary is easy. The world’s full of people who can do ordinary.
So if you haven’t failed, you haven’t really tried.
Plan on failing. But when you do, don’t dwell on it.