How to Fall
I tend to jump into a project quickly. I have this idea that a creative endeavor is like a wave, and you have to leap at the right moment while the momentum is powerful enough to carry you along. The details are less important to me than the concept, and if too much time is spent working out those details, then the wave of momentum will pass and I’ll leap only to land flat on my belly in the sand with the bucket of carefully planned details spilling out around my toes.
I’m not saying any of this is in fact how life works; I’m saying it’s always been my idea of how things work. While some projects lend themselves well to this ‘look 5 seconds then leap’ philosophy, I also find myself under a lot of pressure at times. And often—I fail.
When my kids and I built our house and came up against a difficult task, say framing a diagonal wall with a doorway and plumbing to consider, I tended to say, “just bring me ten pieces of lumber, I’ll work it out.” The worst thing that could happen would be to build it wrong, and we’d become pros at disassembling walls. I would rather fail at building that wall than never grab the hammer and try.
A few years ago my kids and I started an art sales business. We spent months planning the overall concept, and then before we’d fully worked out the details we leapt in and incorporated. Over about five years we spent a good deal of cash and time laying the foundation of a business that ultimately failed before riding the wave out deep enough to even encounter sharks.
When I filed the dissolution paperwork and finally got the secretary of state’s certificate in the mail to dissolve our business, I couldn’t stop smiling. I sent a copy of it to the kids and said we should each frame it on our office walls. Because here was this huge, complex thing, a real incorporated business that no matter the results, we had the nerve to try.
Next time you have an idea that keeps you up at night smiling and wondering, “what if?” leap in and try.
The weight of regret is 1000x the weight of failure.
