This might not work.”
That was one of the cleverest and most fun definitions of what it means to be creative that I came across, as I started this recent series on creativity.
Because of course, central to creating new things – be it ideas, products, art, spreadsheets – is the very real risk that it might not work.
That it might fail.
At least once.
James Dyson had an idea for a bag-less vacuum cleaner. A great idea as it turned out.
But it took 15 years and 5,127 prototypes before he got it right, according to an article in Business Advice magazine.
Dyson is now the most reputable brand in the UK, as voted by the British people.
Dyson had a great idea. He tried, and he failed repeatedly. Imagine if at prototype number 4,998 he thought – this isn’t working, this is too hard, I’m going to pack this in. Think of the economic and financial impact of that decision alone!
But he didn’t. He was willing to fail, and to try again. He had vision, passion and a drive to keep innovating. With that came the recognition that innovation is a process which inevitably involves failure, frustration, and backwards steps.
Dyson is quoted as having said:
Everyone gets knocked back, no one rises smoothly to the top without hindrance. The ones who succeed are those who say, right, let’s give it another go.”
Highly creative types expect to fail repeatedly in the process of creating something new that works. Chances are, the first umpteen times it won’t work, or won’t work quite right.
The risk there of course is that if you take that failure personally, you will feel less able and confident to try again. Which is the great sadness – who knows what might have been the fruit of your creative efforts.
To fail up:
to get it wrong, stop and think, recognise that this is not a personal attack,
learn from it…
and have another shot.
I LOVE this! Why? Because it is so freeing.
As someone who is newly learning to accept that I am indeed creative, there is a concurrent fear that I am going to suddenly be expected to be really good at drawing/art/all the things that I had ruled out in the first place.
No one else is putting this expectation on me.
Just me.
My inner workings, those mental tapes that take you round and round the same paths in your head keeping you trapped in negative self belief.
You got any such tapes? What do they say to you? [and as a digression – this is much of what I do as a life coach: help people re-write positive tapes and break free of negativity and self condemnation, so do get in touch if that is YOU!]
But I can see from this that if I try something new, and get it wrong – that isn’t just OK, to fail initially is a normal part of the creative process. The challenge is to learn and be willing to try again.
This of course is linked to resilience – one of the most popular buzz words of our time. Having the courage, vulnerability and willingness to have another go at something that you are committed to, even if it doesn’t work out as planned to start with.
At the core of this is the ability to separate yourself from the task.
To be able to say – this is me, this is who I am and I am not defined by this failure.
When I fail at something I am trying, I do not need to see it as a personal attack or a failure of character. I can therefore pick myself up, perhaps address my wounded pride, learn from what went wrong and see that I am the same person just a little bit wiser.
I can therefore try again, even if I fail again. Because perseverance and resilience pay off in the end.
To fail and to try again are key elements of much of our lives, not just our creative endeavours.
This week, when you are tempted to give up on something, where instead can you see failure as simply another step towards success, and choose to keep going?