Behind Every Success Is Failure

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Behind Every Success Is Failure

By Brad Shorr | April 14, 2008

Marcus Goodyear left a comment here not too long ago that bears repeating –

It makes me wonder why we never want to share our failures with others–wouldn’t it just give them an opportunity to learn too?

That was weird, because that very idea prompted me to write my April Fool’s Day post, which dealt with a cartoon I wrote that, well, kinda stunk.

And where did this idea come from, to write about a bad cartoon? From Neil Young. Somewhere not too long ago I saw Neil on a TV interview, can’t remember where. He was talking about how he liked to release his bad material as well as the good. The interviewer was a little stunned and asked him why. Neil said (best I can recall), showing fans the bad music helps them understand where he came from as an artist and appreciate how he’s improved and grown as an artist.

I thought that made a lot of sense. Brilliant, inspired music or writing always seems easy and effortless. Take one of my favorite Neil Young songs, Cinnamon Girl. There’s a guitar solo in there where Neil repeats the same note about thirty times, and you think, gee, that’s easy, anybody could write that. But nobody ever did! When you listen to some of Neil’s B-side and C-side work, which includes some fairly tortuous rhythms and melodies, you begin to appreciate just how hard it is to compose effortless music.

So I’m with Marcus. If you want to be a composer, you’ll learn plenty by listening to Neil Young’s flops. As a writer, I find it absolutely fascinating to read preliminary drafts of famous authors. I ponder why they scratched out one word and replaced it with another, or why they eliminated a particular clause or moved it to another part of the sentence. If you can start to understand why the great author chose a particular direction, you can begin to learn the techniques of choosing correctly in your own work.

Success isn’t something you can copy. It is a process you have to understand. And the process almost always begins with failure. Maybe that’s what Neil was getting at in his interview.

What do you think? Can studying failure make someone successful?

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12 Responses to “Behind Every Success Is Failure”

Robert Hruzek Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Great thought here, Brad! For me the money quote is: Success isn’t something you can copy. It is a process you have to understand.

One thing, though - fear can keep us from admitting the “less than perfect” stuff (even though we all know it’s there). If we can overcome the fear, though… well, there’s are real learning opportunity!
Brad Shorr Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 6:55 am
You are so right, Bob. A friend and colleague of mine once described an ultra-successful sales rep as being “unembarrassable”. Always thought that was a great description. The sales rep was never afraid to make a mistake, take a chance, look foolish.
Behind Every Success Is Failure | Inc News Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 7:06 am
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMarcus Goodyear left a comment here not too long ago that bears repeating –. It makes me wonder why we never want to share our failures with others–wouldn’t it just give them an opportunity to learn too? … […]
Andrew Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Hi Brad.

I can certainly relate to this.

When I was in my late teens/early twenties, I wrote piano solos as a hobby. Far from being effortless, the process can be quite frustrating. Sometimes, I would sit there for hours, trying loads of different things, and still not coming up with anything.

I, too, found that my later compositions were a significant improvement on my earlier efforts.

But the biggest lesson I learned about creating piano compositions was about discipline. My ability to compose was, if I may say so, quite high. Whilst not easy, composing came naturally to me. However, due to slightly under average physical co-ordination, my playing ability was not so high.

Accordingly, learning to play my own songs, even after I had already written them, required a great deal of practice. I knew how the music was supposed to sound, but it took weeks of dedicated practice before I could produce that sound on a consistent basis.

Inspiration is the start of any worthwhile composition (or business, or social project, or blog, or painting). But only though discipline - doing the hard yards - can that inspiration be turned from an idea into a tangible, finished product.

Cheers

Andrew
Brad Shorr Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Andrew, what an important insight. People who never knew what you put into your compositions might have thought, Gee, Andrew is so talented — I wish I could do that! And maybe many of them could, if they knew to put in the work.
Zach Katkin Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I think the idea of releasing old or bad music is a bad idea. I’m not listening to learn. I’m listening to enjoy. I suppose it all depends on the context. If I were a musician studying how to better myself or my music it would be of tremendous value. With that said - publishing failures is a great idea (when done appropriately).
Karen Swim Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Brad, I remember reading that comment and it stuck with me too. This year I’ve given myself permission to fail in my writing. In doing so I am gaining the discipline of writing even when it stinks and growing from it. I fail privately and publicly. My sucky blog posts teach me as many lessons as though that are well received. I think that while we learn from failure we’re often reluctant to share it with others because we are ashamed. I am wearing my failure as a badge, without the stumbles I will not get to the success I desire. I’m happy to share the good and bad with others so that they can learn from my mistakes without repeating them.
Karen Swim Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Ha, speaking of failure, yep typo in my comment. “lesson as those that are well received.” Ah, the humility of humanity.
Brad Shorr Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 5:25 am
I agree with the spirit and courage of your comment, Karen, yet Zach makes a valid point about the audience not wanting to be part of an experiment, about the audience having certain expectations that deserve to be fulfilled. But Karen, if you are trying to as hard as you can and still fall short, I don’t think your readers can fault you too much.
Brad Shorr Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 5:26 am
And BTW, Karen, I read your blog every day and haven’t seen any post failures yet!
Karen Swim Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Brad, I also think Zach’s points are valid. I would say that your audience is not part of an experiment but part of your journey. They watch you grow over time and hopefully they gain from that too. I mean let’s face it we don’t set out to fail on purpose. I don’t write sucky stuff because that is my goal. I always try to do my best but sometimes when I look back I think “Geez, what was I thinking?!” LOL! I also appreciate the encouragement. I really am trying not to suck but if I do I’m willing to accept that there’s a lesson in that too.
Andrew Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I also agree with Zach’s comments - to a point.

It is certainly true that as a listener, you want to enjoy quality music. Arguably, all publicly released music should be of a fully professional standard.

However, I don’t see any problem in releasing old music. Those who are not interested do not have to listen. Also, I think that many die-hard fans may be interested in hearing some of that old stuff. Maybe, the answer is to mix in one or two of those old songs at concerts, giving die-hard fans a small taste of where you’ve come from.

Karen, I think your approach to writing is a sound one. I don’t think any writer can reach their full potential unless they allow themselves to fail and grow from their failures.

Cheers

Andrew