Epic Fails

So many people, myself included, fear failure. I saw this graphic online and I think it serves as a good reminder:

The above statement is absolutely true. There is virtually no creativity without failure (unless you happen to be God) so if we are going to be creatives, it’s kind of pointless to fear failure. Everyone of these people was considered a failure, not good enough, and on and on. Can you believe someone thought Walter Elias Disney lacked imagination??? It seems ludicrous now but at one point, everyone of these greats, all of whom are now seen as the pinnacles of their respective crafts, was labeled a failure and rejected.

There was a failure here alright… a failure to see the greatness each of these folks possess and that fail was epic. But I want you to see something else. The reason every one of them rose to greatness was because they rejected the idea that they were a failure and pressed on. Look guys, not everyone is going to get you. Some people are going to think your work is garbage. Ignore them. You’re not a failure. You’re the creation of the only creative who has never, not even once failed. You cannot be a failure because your Creator has never failed. So press on. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off ask God to confirm your direction and press on.

You can do everything God has created you to do. Stick with it. You may have some bumps in the road, even some changes in direction, but there is success beyond the feeling of failure for those who will keep going.

Feeling Like a Failure

Then you need to see this…

Hugh MacLeod summarizes the creative life.

I just got done reading Hugh MacLeod’s book, Ignore Everybody and 39 other keys to creativity. It’s a really good book on creativity though some will find his language and a few of his illustrations a little troubling.

Nonetheless, He sums his book up this way and I think these are some really great points:

“If I had to condense this entire book into aline or two, it would read something like, “Work hard. Keep at it. Live simply and quietly. Remain humble. Stay positive. Create your own luck. Be nice. Be polite.”

I think that’s a pretty great way to approach living creatively.

Work Hard: Overnight successes are a rarety. Don’t plan on being one. Put in the time. Do your work.

Keep at it: Build and develop your gift and keep plugging away. The old saying is true: Quitters never win and winners never quit. As Andy Andrews says “Persist without exception.”

Live Simply and quietly: Nothing messes with creativity like stress. Nothing limits creative freedom like boatloads of debt. Keep it simple, relax and do great work.

Remain Humble: Who wants to work with (or support, or root for) an arrogant jerk?

Stay positive: Creating from a negative place is hard and do we (or our audiences) really need anymore negativity?

Create your own luck: This one is huge. We no longer live in a world where anyone has to sit around waiting to be discovered or picked. You don’t have to be lucky or get your big break. Make your own luck, build your own following. Pick yourself, do what you were created to do and show it to the world.

Be nice. Be polite: Because again who wants to work with a jerk. The internet has opened up a lot more opportunities and a lot more choices. We don’t need prima donnas and divas, because there is always someone else we can follow. Love your followers, your “fans”, appreciate them and reward them with your best work offered with a humble spirit. Their very limited time is a gift to you. Live like you appreciate it.

The world has changed and for the creative, that change is for the better. The opportunities are nearly endless. Don’t squander them.

To order Hugh MacLeod’s book from Amazon, click the cover.

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Sir Winston Churchill

Churchill on Success (Click Image to get this on a shirt)

I read this quote today in You Are Talented by Patrick Kavanaugh and it really hit home. The only people who never fail are the people who never try. Not so ironically those who never try, never succeed therefore failure is necessary for success. So fail with great gusto, learn from your mistakes and press on toward the goal God has for your life.

To close, the great statesman Churchill also said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Persevere!

The Three Best Ways to Ensure Failure

The three best ways to ensure failure are to feel sorry for yourself, focus on what you don’t have and give up.

Join us for a quick look at the story of Gideon where we’ll see these things in action and how God combats them. It’s three minutes that will change your day and maybe even your life.

Total Failure…

I was driving down the road a couple days ago when I saw one of those novelty license plates on the car in front of me. My 47 year old eyes couldn’t make out what the top line said but the bottom line said “Initial Success or Total Failure.” My first thought was, “How sad. This poor person must live with fear or failure every day.” That thought may have been judgmental because as he pulled up to the traffic light, I was able to read the top line. It said, “Bomb Technician.” He is right. In his line of work, success is a necessity every time, because you can’t come back from failure.

I’m guessing it’s not the same in your line of work. For most of us failure is not just inevitable, it’s necessary. The only people who never fail are God, Jesus and people who never try anything. Almost every great success is born like a phoenix from the ashes of a multitude of failures. Don’t fear failure, learn from it, grow from it. If you try often you will most likely fail often, but you won’t ever do anything great, you won’t live your God-given purpose without trying. Maybe we need to come up with a new word for these intermediate failures. Perhaps pre-successes.

A failure’s not a failure unless you quit and fail to try again.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Judges 21; 1 Samuel 1; 1 Timothy 1
You can also download your own chart here.

Creative Inspiration: Hollerado

I first found this story in Seth Godin’s new book Poke the Box. I thought this band showed remarkable creativity and determination and by the way the video is genius. Here is the story of Hollerado.

“Any artist who says that the reason they’re still unknown is because they don’t have a manager or a booking agent or a devout following that will lift them up and carry them on their shoulders to stardom needs to seriously get over themselves and check out this band’s story.

These guys are from a little town in Ontario, Canada. They decide they want to tour the States but no one will book them because they’re unknown. So they decide to drive as far away from home into America as they could get. Then they would walk into a club where a band was playing and make up some story to the manager that they’re 2000 miles from home, had a gig down the street but it fell through. So they would ask if they could play a short set and miraculously, IT WORKED! They did this countless times but might have only gotten a few drinks or pizza out of the deal.

They still needed gas money. So they’d go to the mall, get a CD burner and a few spindles of blank CDs. They’d burn 100 CDs in the parking lot and stand outside the Hot Topic with a discman, asking anyone to listen to their demos. If they liked it, they got a CD in a ziplock bag with some goodies for $5. The band made $4.50 off the deal. They did this for two years and made it home!

Then they decide to release their new CD, Record In A Bag, in 2009 (packaged exactly as from the U.S. tour). To promote the CD, they took the concept of a residency gig, where you play the same club once a week and pumped steroids into it. They launched their RESIDENCY TOUR, playing a show in seven different cities for each night of the week for a month. So Sunday night it’s Boston, Monday it’s Pianos’ in NYC, Tuesday was Quebec, followed by Hamilton, Ontario, Toronto, Ottowa and Montreal. Then: Repeat 4 times. 12,000 brutal Canadian winter miles in 28 days!

They finally found a distributor who would take on their special “packaging” and to date, have sold more than 10,000 copies of their CD and have reached the Top 5 on Canadian Alternative radio.”

What would you do if you thought you could not fail? Well you might fail. Do it anyway.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Leviticus 21; John 14-15; Hebrews 8
You can also download your own chart here.