Here is a brief excerpt from one of my upcoming books (as yet untitled and unfinished):
I
was in a bookstore one day browsing through the section on historical
fiction. I am a sucker for a
well-written novel set in a real historical time and involving characters from
our past. Thumbing through the
familiar names of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, and Jeff Shaara, I was
surprised to come across a couple of books in this genre by Steven Pressfield. I knew Pressfield to be the creator of
the story behind the movie The Legend of Bagger
Vance. Intrigued, I bought both books and read
them with relish. They were
remarkable. They transported me
back in time, immediately got me interested in their characters, and also
taught me much about the epochs in which they were set. Impressed with the breadth of
Pressfield’s creative ability, I dug into the story of his success.
Apparently
it was seventeen years of trying before Pressfield got his first professional
writing job. It was a partnership
on a screenplay for a movie called King
Kong Lives. Excited and
confident of success, Pressfield invited everyone he knew to the movie’s
premiere. Nobody showed. Not a soul. Then the review of the movie in Vanity Fair said of Pressfield and the other man who helped write
the script, “. . . Ronald Shusett
and Steven Pressfield; we hope these are not their real names, for their
parents’ sake.” Talk about
criticism!
Pressfield himself writes of that
time in his life, “Here I was, forty-two years old, divorced, childless, having
given up all normal human pursuits to chase the dream of being a writer; now
I’ve finally got my name on a big Hollywood production . . . and what happens?
I’m a loser, a phony; my life is worthless, and so am I.”
If the story had ended there for
Pressfield, we may never have heard of him. But something happened. In Pressfield’s words: “My friend . . . snapped me out of it
by asking if I was gonna quit . . . no! [Pressfield answered]. ‘Then be
happy. You’re where you wanted to
be, aren’t you? So you’re taking a few blows. That’s the price for being in the arena and not on the
sidelines. Stop complaining and be
grateful.’”
It’s hard to imagine sometimes the
resistance and rejection successful people have overcome on their
journeys. We look at them and
immediately see their genius, their ability, their authentic swing. We know them by their Margaritaville. But excellence comes only after the
long struggle against any and all obstacles that come along. This is easy to forget when looking
upon someone who has “made it.”
There is another, deeper lesson to
be gained from Pressfield’s story, however. In effect, he was told not to waste his failure. Specifically, he was reminded to be grateful for it!
We have already been through the
discussion about how failure isn’t fatal as long as it isn’t final. But we need to emphasize here that
failures are extremely valuable if utilized properly, that is, if they are used
as learning experiences and employed in the task of making us better.
Failures hurt. In reading the account of Pressfield’s
first professional flop, it is easy to feel his pain and embarrassment. But fortunately for thousands of fans all
over the world, Steven Pressfield did not allow his humiliations to define him;
instead, he let them refine him. The concept is simple but difficult to
live out consistently: our failures should not define us, but rather they should refine us.
Too
many times we allow our failures to go to waste. As a result of the pain of failing we quit, pout, lash out,
lose confidence, and lose hope. In
such cases the failures hurt, but they are not allowed to instruct. They knock us down, but then are not
utilized to lift us higher. They
make us appear foolish, but are not allowed to help us grow wise.
Author
Frans Johansson wrote, “ . . . groundbreaking innovators . . . produce a heap
of ideas that never amount to anything.
We play only about 35 percent of Mozart’s, Bach’s, or Beethoven’s
compositions today; we view only a fraction of Picasso’s works; and most of
Einstein’s papers were not referenced by anyone. Many of the world’s celebrated writers have also produced
horrible books,* innovative movie directors have made truly uncreative duds,
megasuccessful entrepreneurs have disappointed investors, and pioneering
scientists have published papers with no impact whatsoever on their colleagues
. . . the best way to beat the odds is to continually produce . . . .”
Any
life lived will most certainly come with a litany of failures, mistakes,
embarrassments, and humiliations. If
we are not mature enough to use these shortfalls as steppingstones, they don’t
find their way into our legacy and are spilled out as waste instead. In such instances, we have felt the
pain but not grabbed the gain.
Never
waste a failure. Wring from it all
the experience and learning you can to come back stronger and better the next
time. And no matter what, keep
producing.
Sincerely,
* He doesn't mean me!
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