{"id":1357,"date":"2014-09-21T18:47:05","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T18:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2015-09-16T20:47:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T20:47:24","slug":"thoughts-on-process-and-the-idea-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/?p=1357","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on failure and quitting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I was talking to a few different people about the idea of failure and motivation. It\u2019s a combination of things I\u2019ve seen manifest itself in a number of forms, but it almost always plays out the same way.<\/p>\n

Here is the standard approach towards failure I see often in creative people.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Try something that you have in your mind or in sketch books\/journals, etc.<\/li>\n
  2. It doesn\u2019t work as planned at all the very first time<\/li>\n
  3. Quit.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u2019s the quitting part that for me is the downside. I have this story I tell to almost everyone (I\u2019m not even sure if it\u2019s true anymore – but it doesn\u2019t really matter) when Thomas Edison was inventing the incandescent light bulb, he produced over 1000 failed attempts at creating that bulb. Usually I then say that most people might fail at something three or four times before they quit. And the funny thing is no one ever challenges me on that rough number. Ever.<\/p>\n

    I think that the reason no one does is because in truth that number is probably one.<\/p>\n

    I think a lot of people try things and then walk away – and that as an artist is death.<\/p>\n

    Here is a story I was told by a former US Olympian. I her met years ago at a social function and we were talking to a group of kids about succeeding in life, reaching goals, etc., she was talking about her past as a runner – she was a member of the US Olympic team in the eighties. She was not a dominant runner – so the TV didn\u2019t do a big \u201cget to know\u201d kind of video, but she was at the olympics as an athlete, not a spectator.<\/p>\n

    A year before the olympics she was ranked number four in the ladder of US runners for her event and was not going to be included on the team. Here\u2019s what happened. The two runners ahead of her quit running competitively inside of the\u00a0year before the games\u00a0which allowed\u00a0her to make the team.<\/p>\n

    That story always floors me.<\/p>\n

    Last thing, Here is a video made from an Ira Glass radio show (I think) about taste and failure – it\u2019s interesting as well.<\/p>\n