Failure IS an Option

I wrote the following essay back in 2012, but I think it's good stuff and deserves a spot here on EYKIW.

Failure.  The sin of wasting time, energy, and money on uselessness.  The sin of falling short of expectations.  The sin of falling short on results.  Failure.  It is one of the greatest insults of modern man, the pariah of our society.  Even if we have a slim chance of failure, we still balk at the chance to chase our dreams.  The last thing that we want to see in the mirror is the word failure pursed on our lips.

The fear of failure is everywhere.  Whether it is big life-changing risks, a change of hairstyles, or not getting enough courage to ask the cute guy or girl in class to a date.  If we shy away from taking a chance, we will not be rejected.  But, we will never get a chance to fulfill our dreams or even experience the bitter taste of failure.  You know, failure is not that bad - there is actually a lot of good that comes out of failure.

That is right - a lot of good coming out of failure!  There is so much that we can get from putting our heart into something and failing.  At the very least, it shows that we are not scared to try; we are not scared of trying to make a difference.  We learn from failure - the cadavers of failed ideas are great ways to learn and do better on the next attempt.  Also - even though we may fail, our failure may eventually be seen as a visionary masterwork over time.

One of the greatest mottoes (editors note:  holy crap!  I did not know that the plural of motto had an e in it) that I have run across with life is this:  we only have one shot at life.  We can't go back in time or give life another shot.  We only have one and then we die.  And I hear some of you say, "So, don't screw up!"  Let's take that reasoning to an extreme and play out our life.

If our goal in life is not to screw up, then that means we will only take on risks that are nearly impossible to fail at.  What does that mean?  Generally speaking, I believe that we would then stick to well trod paths of life.  We would not take on paths less taken or paths altogether not taken.  For example, this means if we wanted to write a novel, and we knew not a well trod path to writing that novel, it will be left undone.  Why?  Too much of a risk of failure.  No one we know or too few we know have done it.  Basically we train ourselves to believe that the most fantastic of real lives are not really real - novelists exist, but they are not normal people like me.  I wonder how often the next greatest American novel was not written because of this fear of failure?

Let's say that we had a dream that we wanted to pursue.  For the sake of illustration, we have this dream of producing a rock opera based on the musical failings of pop-icons.  Title:  Death by Bieber.  We pursue our dream and make it happen - and guess what - it fails!  Ticket sales were poor and the critics came down hard in the reviews.  Nothing much to salvage on this project.

So, that was all wasted time, right?  Not at all!  We learn quite a bit by just completing something.  Part of it is the intricacies that hide behind the silver-lined dream: looks nice on the outside, but it can be hell on the inside!  We could learn that we were not cut out for it.  And that is fine.  You can say honestly, at the end of the day, that you gave it a shot.  How many people just wished that they had followed a dream but ultimately never did?  At least you gave it a shot - and there is satisfaction to be had in trying.

You could also learn the more obvious from a failure:  this does not work!  And that is good too because if you feel that you like doing the work, you can put forth the effort to try again - tweak it or start over again.

Another thing that happens with a few "failures" is the eventual title of being visionary.  This happens often in art and music.  My favorite example is Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.  The music was harmonically adventurous with plenty of use of dissonance for musical color.  It was a piece of music so far out of the norm - that it was too much for the people of 1913.  So much so, that at the premiere of the ballet, a riot broke out.  That's right folks, a riot in the concert hall!  Now, Rite of Spring is hailed as one of the most quintessential pieces of 20th Century music.

What would have happened if Stravinsky played it safe?  It is hard to say, but I am sure that the musical world would be much less enriched because of it.  I have found inspiration in my own work from this piece.  Other examples of this visionary failure would be Nikola Tesla and JS Bach.  Although some of their genius was appreciated during their life, the total contribution of their work to art and science was not fully known until well after their death.  They were not necessarily failures, but neither were they given the full credit they deserve in this life.

And to tie into what is happening in the world today: how do you think that this economy is going to get off of life support?  It is not going to be people doing the same ol' thing.  We need creative energy to find new avenues for development and economy.  We need people not to be afraid to fail - now more than ever.  We need people to take that step away from that "safe" job for their own sake to take a chance to make a difference.  We need those unemployed to see the opportunity to take a chance on their dreams.  That is the only way we can get out of this mess: take a chance at failure.

...Oh and BTW, the first attempt at this post was a failure.  I had to rewrite the whole post!