Fancy a Failure?

For some reason, in the creative fields, we tend to think of “failure” as a word with negative connotations, positioning it as the opposite of “success.” What if we thought about it differently?

First of all, thanks to everyone who has signed up or opted in to the Substack in its first week. A special shoutout to my pal and D-Word co-host Doug Block who gave me a mention in his most recent Substack on creative blocks. I promise I will address that topic in more depth as well since I have a lot of thoughts on it. But really creative blocks are just a part of something much bigger...

We may be in the season of awards and accolades. For those of us in the world of film, we are in the first quarter of film festival season. It’s also the tail end of awards season as the Oscars takes place this weekend. While the average person may see awards shows as little more than a place for celebrities to wear pretty attire and pat themselves on the back, for the folks involved behind the scenes to make art what it is, winning or even being nominated is an accolade that can lead to the next project and career step.

While premiering at the Sundance Film Festival or winning an Oscar or achieving some accolade in any creative discipline may be viewed as a worthy goal, the chances of achieving these types of successes are quite small. This year, Sundance received more than 16,000 submissions and screened less than 100 films, so most submissions stand less than a 1% chance of making it into the festival. Measured only in this binary way of yay or nay, that equates to 15,900 failures. Gulp!

So what does it mean if…

• Your film doesn’t premiere at Sundance or doesn’t win an Oscar;

• You are never awarded a prestigious grant or angel investments to support your creative thing;

• Publishers pass on your book;

• A gallery show falls through;

• Your play reading gets a lot of strong criticism;

• Only five people show up for your concert;

• Your Substack never goes viral;

• You struggle with being creatively stuck;

• You struggle with your own confidence about whether your work is any good;

• You struggle with other aspects of your life getting in the way of moving forward.

YOU ARE A FAILURE.

Even if those are painful words to read, it is quite likely that they or some variation of them have crossed your mind at some point. They certainly have crossed mine many times. I’ve faced my share of rejections (or its even more insidious cousin, silence) from funders, film festivals, publishers, job applications, etc. etc. If you don’t believe me, check out this collage of actual rejection notes from film festivals for the first film I ever produced. There are only so many kind words that can convey “thanks but no thanks!”

I’ve worked on projects that needed to be jumpstarted again and again. Heck, I even kicked off my Substack journey by admitting that I will likely fail at being consistent about posting. Are you silently judging?

Yup, I have failed many many times over. So much so that I have decided to own it.

I AM A FAILURE.

And that is OK. In fact, it is great!

For some reason, in the creative fields, we tend to think of “failure” as a word with negative connotations, positioning it as the opposite of “success.”

Particularly for artists or those launching a new product or social enterprise, it also ties into equating the thing we create with our self. If the thing doesn’t make it through a gatekeeping process or doesn’t get bought by the consumer or we are unhappy with it in some way, that can be converted into thinking we are the losers because we can’t even make a thing that “wins.”

Yet, to be makers of things, we need to be bold and creative.

While there is no single definition of creativity, generally it involves making something or the ability to create. In the dictionary.com definition creativity is defined as “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.” Looking for the word “success” there? You won’t find it.. You won’t find “failure” either, but it sure will find you.

Maybe we need to borrow from our counterparts in the sciences where innovation is also an asset. In science, failure is essential in research and experiments. It is simply information that allows science to move forward by ruling out particular conclusions, so that scientists can move on and test other hypotheses through different approaches or conditions. Sometimes this form of failure can lead science in incredible new directions or a new hypothesis. Albert Einstein famously said “Failure is success in progress.” Thomas Edison put it another way, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

This also means that sometimes we need to know when to cut our losses, and do what the entrepreneurial world refers to as “failing forward.” Sometimes we just need to think of creative endeavors as pilot projects. Some will stick. Some we may have to cease working on if they are not moving forward and may, in fact, be holding us back. Ideas that never morph into works. Works that take so long that the maker outgrows them and may need to leave them behind as learning experiences rather than completed projects. Things that may not be fully viable in their original concept but which may become a different thing that is.

Accepting failure also means accepting imperfection, something that can be challenging for many of us. In addition to being willing to accept failure, that also means accepting that some of our creative output may be good, but not great, or that we also need to redefine how we view success. I’ll explore success in a separate post, but, in the meantime, let’s all revel in our failures.

If you feel comfortable, please share a time you failed and it lead to something different, maybe even better?