If creative success is a wall built out of bricks, over half of those bricks represent noble failure. We often imagine success as a structure composed entirely of triumphs, each brick a small but significant victory. But reality paints a different picture. The wall is built out of trial and error, wrong turns, excessive enthusiasm, poor hiring decisions, dead-end paths explored and abandoned.
The wall stands, not because of perfection, but because of persistence. It’s our will to keep going, to have another try, to practice repeatedly, to rest between goes, to come back to it, over and over again, that forms the mortar holding our experiences together. At the beginning of learning a new thing, we have to go through being crap. Then take a wade through the quagmire of mediocrity. Learning the rules, repeated attempts at decency, frustration at mistakes, before we start being good.
At the beginning, we might only be able to make something 10% good. Our task, then, is to take a good look at it. What made this 10% good, and this 90% rubbish? Set it aside, have another look at it in a few days time, when we’re no longer too close to it. What is good about it, this 10%? We obsess over quality. We return to the drawing board to make a new thing, hoping for 12%.
Creativity demands support, love, connection, and growth. We must reject those who can see only our shortcomings. People who make us feel inadequate need to be kept at arm's length from our creative process. We're not going to be good when we're learning. Having someone judging our work is counterproductive. Instead, we choose the path of encouragement and development, carefully selecting friends, partners, and family members who will nurture our creative spark. And that might mean not passing judgement of any kind at all.
Most crucially, we learn to speak kindly to ourselves. When we produce something crap, we simply acknowledge it. "I wasn't expecting it to be great," we tell ourselves. "I'm going to look for anything good here and keep what's worth keeping." We keep building on top, consigning the noble failures to the volume of work that build the wall, leading ultimately to improvement.
It helps to reflect on how long we had, the resources available to us. “It’s ok, given the amount of time I had to make it.” The iron triangle of making things is quality, time, and resources. Mostly, we have two out three.
We keep going. We narrow our focus. We obsess over quality. We read widely, allowing seemingly unrelated knowledge to seep into our practice, trusting that it will enrich our work in unexpected ways. We return, again and again, to the projects and people that matter to us the most.
Rest is very important. Without a chance to rest and recuperate, our burnt out brain can’t incorporate new knowledge, can’t file new understanding, can’t take a step back to look at things with a bit more perspective. When we still have our juice, when we know where we are going next, we stop. Rest. Come back to it the next day.
Sometimes, the path forward requires moving mountains. We may need to leave a relationship that stifles us or quit a job that leaves no room for our passion. These decisions are painful, seeming to slow us down temporarily, but they create the space we need. Once we've made room, we show up every day. Create, even when we don't feel like it.
Through this daily commitment, we gradually climb out of our anxiety, our shame, our uncertainty. We put one brick on top of another, keeping our eyes fixed on the wall we're building out of success and noble failure. Some days, we may only add a pebble. Other days, a cornerstone. Some good, some bad. We keep building, understanding that each step, each brick takes us further along the road towards creative success.
Walk the Pod will be back next Monday 8 July with Series 48 - 10 brand new daily walking episodes about creativity. Subscribe here.