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Randy Nelson, Pixar(via jonathanmoore) |
“The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.”
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”
- Mary Tyler Moore
BONUS QUOTE!
“Improvisers, by definition, take risks and make mistakes, lots of them, but that’s what leads them in fresh directions.”
- NYTimes.com, On Improvisation for Business
I’ve been a skateboarder for 25 years! Apologies for the exclamation point, but I didn’t realize exactly how long until I typed it. Skateboarding is a blast to do and (because I am old as hell and my knees ache always) it’s a blast being a spectator, too. Watching Tony Hawk rock a 900 degree spin 6 feet above the vertical lip of a halfpipe is AWESOME! Why? Because he might crash. What? We don’t want him to slam (do we?). But without knowing that’s one possible outcome - why would we care? And why would Tony care? Without the possibility of utter collapse he’d be bored and unconcerned with the achievement and innovation. So, too, it is with improv comedy.
“The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
For the improviser, product and process are intertwined. The audience is watching the creation as it happens. No edits. No rewrites. “Nowhere to run to, baby. Nowhere to hiiiide.” </Motown> It’s a big part of why it is fun to watch. It’s every reason why it’s fun to do. When the wind of creativity blows through a theater and lifts an improv show off the stage and into the stratosphere, improvisers and audience are sharing something transcendent. But what makes those successes possible is that failure is always lurking. And really great improvisers are flirting with it.
“Improvisers, by definition, take risks and make mistakes, lots of them, but that’s what leads them in fresh directions.”
- NYTimes.com, On Improv for Business
As an improv instructor, I encourage my students to embrace “Playing to Lose.” Tony Hawk blasting a 900 in competition is precisely “Playing to Lose.” He didn’t need that trick to win. And bailing might have caused him to lose. But he wasn’t there to win, necessarily. He was there to win in incredible fashion, or not at all. Any group of good improvisers can knock out a good improv show on a regular basis. But to create the unforgettable, live, in front of a paying audience? You have got to risk losing a few teeth. And so, too, it is with anything that requires you to create.
“The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.”
As a parent, business person and/or liver of life, failure is inevitable. It willhappen. At least leave room for it. Even better, make it a part of your process. Go big! You have got to flirt with disaster if you want big results. Wreck on purpose? Nope. Abandon all caution and common sense? Nope. But, if failure’s going to happen anyway…fail with your foot on the gas pedal instead of the brake.
You can’t blast a 900 (or 12 back-to-back 540’s!) without a few crashes. And you can’t win a contest with a lazy Backside Air.
- Jay
Next Week: Who You Followin’?
