I’m interested in people that want to look at their past experiences as a young and upcoming student of life -in any field- and analyze their mistakes/bad movies/first screenplays and novels and even failed business ventures that didn’t make in order learn what worked and what didn’t.
This is where the gems lie. But, if we’re unable to watch one of George Lucas’ first movies from film school because he is too concerned about how it makes him look now as a successful filmmaker, how are we ever going to know where we came from and what we learned along the way?
This is where we must understand, everyone starts from somewhere. And yes, it may look a little ugly and that’s okay.
All too often we believe we need to hit it out of the park at our first at-bat. It’s unrealistic to have those kinds of expectations. I’m not saying we don’t want to swing for the fence, but don’t let it stop you from getting up to the plate next time. The reality is, we will probably strike-out much more than getting hits. Remember: A major league hall of fame baseball player roughly gets a hit 3 times out of 10. Which means he is “failing” 7 times out of those 10 at-bats.
We must pay attention to what we consider “failing.” Gaining knowledge after going through an experience -whether we failed or not- is called wisdom. And how can we ever get to this place without diving in and taking reps.
After all, the future hall of famer doesn’t quit playing baseball after his first strikeout, nor his 66th or 356th. He goes back to practice to make adjustments to his swing. The good ones will continue to do this until they retire the game.
Never stop learning. Never stop making adjustments. But mostly importantly, stay in the game.