Paradoxically, failing is now de rigueur in business: the new motto from Silicone Valley is "fail fast, fail often." There are even events at which entrepreneurs get together to share ventures they failed at: F***up Nights. Can you imagine such an event for the arts? Painters talking about paintings that just didn't work? Musicians discussing lyrics that were too lame for words? For some reason, failing at the arts is a taboo. Perhaps this is because teachers and parents discourage children from doing visual or performing art-related activities they are not good at. Teachers who might not have the patience to teach the less-than-proficient students tell them to move on to something else (how many kids were told in music class just to "mouth the words"?). Parents, in an effort to protect their children, steer them toward pursuits they will be successful at. Both these situations create adults who not only are afraid to fail, but who will miss out on the joy of learning how to do things they love but might not be good at on first try.



A great article in the online Hazlift Magazine (Random House), It's Okay to Suck, Tim Falconer (author of Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music), writes about how from an early age we are discouraged from doing things we don't show immediate proclivity for. Falconer says, "One way or another, we learn early on that it's not okay to be bad." Children are dissuaded from doing things they are not immediately good at, rather than being encouraged to experience the ups and downs of failing and succeeding. There is no preparation for failing because we are taught to run away or not to show up before we even have a chance to fail.





"All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."  Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho (1983).





Wendy Welch