“Nothing succeeds like failure”
I want to continue to consider The Quest Initiative, specifically how to process the experience of not getting selected for it. I started into it with this post yesterday, the thrust of which is two points:
* I have been wrong before, so if I didn’t pick your story, use that as motivation: Write it, sell it and prove me wrong!
* If you are really passionate about your story, even if I didn’t select it, then write it. Ultimately creativity is about the relationship you have with your stories, so don’t be deterred, go for it.
I had planned on following up on that post because as I suggested yesterday as screenwriters we have to learn how to handle the losses and let-downs. Why? That is a constant dynamic in a professional screenwriter’s life.
Then lo and behold, The Fifth Ape posted this in comments:
First: Scott — You remain an absolute star.
Second: Here’s an interesting way of looking at the “failure” of not getting through:
There is a fantastic article about luck and how some people are luckier than others — This is not some karmic power that surges through the universe — it is simply that “lucky” people tend to do more, try more and are more open to opportunities.
This also means that they FAIL more too…
A “lucky” person will try 100 things this month, 10 will come off. They will fail 90 times.
An “unlucky” person will try 10 things this month, 1 will come off. They will only fail 9 times.
When we look at the first of these people we are inclined to say “lucky bastard”
We have to be open to enter things like this. All the time. If we enter more, we will fail more, but ultimately it might lead to something GREAT.
It’s a pretty long article — but well worth it:
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/
Now let’s get out there and make our own luck!
The Fifth Ape
The article is a good read as it uses logic to re-frame the perception of failure. Instead of thinking about it as… you know… failure, we should instead look at it as one more step toward success.
If, as The Fifth Ape suggests, the more times we fail, the more times we succeed, then instead of looking at failure as a negative, we can benefit by embracing it as a positive.
And that doesn’t even pull into consideration what we can learn from our failures.
As I was writing this, I was reminded of my high school tennis coach. I can only remember three things about him: his ruddy face, his buzzcut hair, and something he used to say quite often to us:
“Nothing succeeds like failure.”
I always thought that was the damnedest thing to say to a sports team. What, so you want us to fail? In retrospect, I think he was trying to plant a seed in us for our lives down the road, knowing that we would face inevitable failures, and recast how we might experience that.
And as I was strolling down that particular corner of Memory Lane, it occurred to me to see what other coaches and sports figures had to say about the subject. After all, a baseball player who fails to get a hit 7 out of 10 times at the plate can make the Hall of Fame which means by default they deal with a lot of failure. Here are a few choice quotes:
Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.
— John Wooden
I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
— Michael Jordan
About the only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure.
— Tommy Lasorda
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.
— Vince Lombardi
So give that article cited above a read. Feel free to jot down any of the quotes as motivational tools. Or just determine to write that spec script to prove Scott Myers wrong.
Whatever it takes.
Because finding the courage and commitment to write is not only the only way to make things happen to further your career…
It’s also where the real glory is, that existential act of embracing your creativity and against all odds making something out of nothing.
I welcome your comments and any other resources you may have in this regard.
Onward and upward!
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