The Creativity Post: Yale University's mission statement begins this way: "Yale aims to carry out each part of its mission at the highest level of excellence, on par with the best institutions in the world." Mission statements of other universities reflect the same level of commitment to truth, discovery and possibility. Whatever the cost, the goal is to produce excellence. Except, the cost is failure and failure is the opposite of excellence.
4 comments:
I like the idea that this article presents that failure is not only good for us, but necessary. That to create art, the endurance and acceptance of failure is required.
Failure is not the opposite of excellence, it's a building block to get you there. In Randy Pausch's book The Last Lecture he describes how for the final projects one of the prizes he awards is "the first penguin." The prize applauds the group who had a great idea that they went for and completely failed. It awards the guts it takes to try something ambitious, to take a risk, and the maturity to accept that your brilliant idea hasn't worked out and learn from your failure. The word failure has such a stigma on it in our culture of having to be perfect and doing your best that I think being able to be proud of the fact you tried something that didn't work out is an incredibly valuable skill. We should all try to be the first penguin once in a while.
I think its pretty ridiculous that an Ivy league school doesn't accept people who have failed. In my opinion, failure is a great test of a persons ability to persevere and become stronger from that failure. I also believe failure is a great opportunity to learn. I think that many people and institutions believe that failure means someone is incompetent or unskilled and while that can be true, the smartest and most skilled people have all failed. I think when someone fails and learns from that failure they become even better than those who got it right on the first time because they know the importance of the process and they know 'what not to do'. In our line of work, failure is something that we really can't afford being afraid of because being afraid to fail will stop us from reaching our true creative potentials. Creativity is always pushing the boundaries and if a person is afraid to fail, they won't ever push the boundaries that great art does. I find it really interesting that the article talks about how those who have been hurt have great creativity. its fascinating to ponder that those who have failed in life are less afraid of failing through their creativity than those who haven't felt sadness or hurt. Maybe its because they know that a person can come back from that even stronger and wiser than before.
Although this may be less relevant, but this article reminds me of something that I've always wondered when I was little: Why do good schools only accept "smart" kids? Isn't taking in less well-educated kids and educating them to become intellectual and outstanding students what makes the school a good school? As I grew up, I came to understand why good schools are selective for the top students instead of students who fail, but I still think failure is crucial and necessary for growth. There is a difference between people who never experience a single failure because they avoid doing so and people who don't experience failure because they've learned from their mistakes in the past. Avoiding failure also means avoiding success, because both require one to take risks, and I think this is true regardless of what field/profession you are in. Only through making mistakes can one learn from it. Although people may argue that you can learn from theory and observation, learning from watching and learning from doing is completely different. Furthermore, specifically when it comes to creativity, failure can even be the inspiration itself - which is impossible to achieve if you avoid failure at all costs. Failing can feel embarrassing and awful, but when you look back at it later you'll know it was worth it.
As an artist the fear of failure is intrinsically there, and in many ways exists as the single the greatest hinderance to the creative process. Like Bob Dylan writing "Like a Rolling Stone" alone in a cabin, as the article mentions, art is at its most successful when its created without any inhibitions or fears, in which the artist is open to exploring anywhere the creative process will take them. Although I think failure is critical in the education for any career, the freedom to fail and ability to understand how to move forward from it is essential to an artist because their career path is based on creating for a audience's reception, who will evaluate the merit of the work on their own accord. Since the artist is constantly putting out new work the possibility of failure is looming behind every move they make, and definitely takes its toll on their journey of creative discovery and innovation. Unlike a technical field where there may be a right formulaic answer or blueprint to match up to, the artist is constantly shooting in the dark trying to influence the subjective minds of others and needs to understand that within that framework failure is eminent and therefore fearing it is pointless, and only internally detrimental.
None of this is to say failure is bad, quite the contrary, failure is never our intended result but it is a worthwhile discovery regardless, and stands as the best tool for educating and understanding how to redirect yourself to success. With that said I don't understand why the process of failure isn't embraced more in higher education. Why is it that those who have tried and failed, and yet have extraordinary minds are often excluded from prestigious institutions like Yale simply because they've failed before? Our society has raised us to think failure is intrinsically bad and that success is the highest achievement possible, which sounds smart on paper, but when you consider that all those who have succeeded have only done so because they've failed before, you begin to see the merit the American education system too often ignores in the potential of failure.
Post a Comment