"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." - Beverly Sills
I have often faced failure. Some failure I have faced in front of many, many people. This is what can happen to an actor. Failure with props, failure with memory, failure with a number of things that can leave most folks befuddled at best and huddled in a fetal position on the floor at worst. I have miscalculated the trajectory of a bicycle and run headlong into a very solid pillar (one of the few on the stage) just before a musical number that I had to sing and dance in. I have had to improvise my way through scenes that just went wrong and all the while keep my audience convinced that what they were watching was fully planned and intended. Even while everything around us on stage may have been failing, they show had to go on... and it did. I am pleased to say that I have never completely lost in the face of some of the most insurmountable odds.
Failure is a familiar tool for me. I was born with a major failure. I have never had 75% of my hearing. This apparent deficit could have been interpreted by my family as a reason to excuse any inability to do certain things. Fortunately, this isn't what happened. My family believed that I could be anything I wanted to be. They empowered me to pursue some of the craziest things. Crazy, that is, for a kid who had to wear hearing aids every day. When I was 8, in 1976, I was determined to be an astronaut. I drew up my plans for a spaceship that could fly into space and then return to Earth like a plane. My dad sent these plans off to NASA. He wasn't going to spoil my dream. I got a whole pile of cool stuff back from NASA including artist sketches of a soon to be launched space craft called the Space Shuttle. I was one of the teeming millions that watched in awe on April 12th, 1981 when that space ship left our planet. I still have the letter they sent. Sadly, I don't have that packet of cool stuff. I think I donated it to one of the schools I attended. The memory of those pictures though are permanently etched on my brain.
So I didn't become an astronaut. I didn't become a Lifeguard, even though I got as far as my Bronze Cross. I didn't become a professional drummer even though I played briefly in a Scottish Marching Band. I didn't even become a famous actor even though I achieved a successful career for almost 12 years and performed roles on stage and television. Sure I have had failures, but were they really?
Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, said "if you want to succeed, double your failure rate." Failure is a tool. Like a hammer, if we don't learn how to use it we will hurt. My perception of failure is different from many and I find myself tolerant where others would not. This is sometimes misunderstood as indifference. Fear of failure is like being afraid of a hammer. Just get your thumb out of the way and you will be fine. Use failure as a tool, get past the idea that failure is somehow wrong or bad or even avoidable and start using it.
It is interesting that childhood is all about failure. Failure to walk, failure to tie your shoes, failure to feed yourself. Children don't stop when faced with failure. They keep on. I think fear of failure is learned. We are taught to fear anything less than success. Even if that success is mediocre and easily won. Most of us would prefer to succeed at something that everyone else succeeds at, than risk doing something that no one else has done and failing.
i cherish my failures as much as my successes. They make me what I am. I embrace them, celebrate them, and share them. There is no shame in it. Even if someone tries to convince you to be ashamed, you don't have to be. The point is to learn from what they have to offer and avoid repeating that pain. We all learned to walk. Why? Because falling down hurt, especially once we no longer had the padding of a diaper on our bums.
Cherishing failure does not mean that the pain goes away. Every failure I have ever had and ever will have stings. Some have longer lasting stings than others, but make no mistake, they hurt. But like all pain, they are also unavoidable and natural. I don't like phrases like, "failure is not an option." Actually it is an option, but what is your pain tolerance? When the pain outweighs the tolerance, the tolerance for failure decreases. Risk mitigation arrives to help alleviate potential failure pain.
So what does it mean to try? Well, real trying is honest and earnest. Half-hearted attempts are intentional failures. They fall in the "why bother" category. You might as well hang up your skates and go home. Invest in your attempts. Invest everything you got. Don't hold back.
Sometimes the flip-side of the coin is our fear of success. We try, we succeed. Oh crap... now what. Now we have to live up to our success. Now we need to practice understanding that success is the same as failure...
OB
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Seeing
"The whole secret of the study of Nature lies in learning to use one's eyes." - George Sand
There is something about the eyes are mirrors of the soul. When I think about what it means to see, I find myself comparing seeing with seeing much like there is hearing and listening. As I was growing up, my parents would sometimes say, "you aren't listening to me." Interestingly, this wasn't a statement that I somehow magically closed my ears (though in my case this is possible; I just turn off my hearing aids). This was a statement that even though I had heard the message, I wasn't tuned into it. I wasn't listening to it. It is a subtle shift. I am not aware of a word in the english language for "seeing" that reflects this same subtlety that is express by contrasting hearing with listening.
Both hearing a listening are active words, you do them at the time that the event is occurring. Seeing is also active. Perhaps this is what drove Sand to choose use the phrase "learning to use one's eyes" where the word "learning to see" would never suffice. The power of comprehension of visual input is all at once survival, entertainment, and meditation. It is the ability to see chaos but to comprehend beauty and organization. Looking at the shape of a cloud we can see that there is huge levels of randomness, chaos, and unstructured disorganization. When we comprehend the shape of the cloud we see incredible tiny actions of turbulence, expansion, contraction, condensation, evaporation, and see the harmony of the whole system.
When I read the book "Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Geick, I was struck by the beauty of what once was completely random and chaotic results from certain mathematical formulae once there was an opportunity to really see what kinds of shapes these things created. They became known as fractals. Mandelbrot and others ushered in the realization that for countless years scientists, engineers and mathemiticians had written these formulae off as "nonsensical equations."
Just because we have trouble comprehending something, doesn't give us the right to shrug it off, rule it out or dismiss it. The same goes for our intuition. Sometimes we have ideas, thoughts, or inspirations that we can't explain. We can't comprehend where these ideas come from. Every single person has them. Some act on them. Others dismiss them as folly. Still others treat them as "holy" or "thoughts put in your mind from the Devil." I place these two last groups together because the interpretation of "holy" or "evil" is really dependent on the perspective. Case in point is St. Joan d'Arc. This is a person whose inspirations were hailed as both "holy" and "evil!" She ultimately died for an ability to comprehend her world on a level that many others could not.
Intuition is a gathering place of the senses. As human beings we are genetically wired to take in all the input from all our senses in order to comprehend our environment. Somehow we are able to go beyond that and move into the realm of intuition. An example is a doctor who is able to comprehend a patients symptoms and is able to offer a diagnosis that is not necessarily a direct result of analyzing the data set resulting from various reports and tests. There are many examples where a doctor has managed to solve a problem through an intuitive sense of what all the data means. Sometimes this gets reported as "well it just didn't feel right" or "I had a gut feeling" or "something was tingling in my mind." I am interested in learning more about the nature of intuition.
Heinlein in "A Stranger in a Strange Land" coined the word "grok." This word means the ability to comprehend something at a level akin to synergy. I have found that I apply "grokking" to an ability to comprehend something even though the data available is imcomplete. We as human beings are also wired to fill in the gaps. "Seeing" sometimes invlolves filling in the gaps or reorganizing the information in order to comprehend it. This can sometimes be very useful and sometimes can lead to unfortunate dismissive behaviour. "This is nonsensical. Discard it," is our brain's way of saying that the observation or input is outside this pattern matching wiring we have. Einstein had trouble comprehending Quantum Mechanics and for many years dismissed it. The theoretical scientist who calculated that 10 neutrinos from the Sun would impact with Chlorine atoms causing them to decay, was unable to have his calculations proven by experimental data for 30 years. He spent most of his scientific career defending what he knew to be true. It wasn't until more sophisticated instruments and new revelations of the characteristics of neutrinos proved that he was right. Just because we have trouble comprehending the Truth doesn't mean it isn't in fact true.
OB
There is something about the eyes are mirrors of the soul. When I think about what it means to see, I find myself comparing seeing with seeing much like there is hearing and listening. As I was growing up, my parents would sometimes say, "you aren't listening to me." Interestingly, this wasn't a statement that I somehow magically closed my ears (though in my case this is possible; I just turn off my hearing aids). This was a statement that even though I had heard the message, I wasn't tuned into it. I wasn't listening to it. It is a subtle shift. I am not aware of a word in the english language for "seeing" that reflects this same subtlety that is express by contrasting hearing with listening.
Both hearing a listening are active words, you do them at the time that the event is occurring. Seeing is also active. Perhaps this is what drove Sand to choose use the phrase "learning to use one's eyes" where the word "learning to see" would never suffice. The power of comprehension of visual input is all at once survival, entertainment, and meditation. It is the ability to see chaos but to comprehend beauty and organization. Looking at the shape of a cloud we can see that there is huge levels of randomness, chaos, and unstructured disorganization. When we comprehend the shape of the cloud we see incredible tiny actions of turbulence, expansion, contraction, condensation, evaporation, and see the harmony of the whole system.
When I read the book "Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Geick, I was struck by the beauty of what once was completely random and chaotic results from certain mathematical formulae once there was an opportunity to really see what kinds of shapes these things created. They became known as fractals. Mandelbrot and others ushered in the realization that for countless years scientists, engineers and mathemiticians had written these formulae off as "nonsensical equations."
Just because we have trouble comprehending something, doesn't give us the right to shrug it off, rule it out or dismiss it. The same goes for our intuition. Sometimes we have ideas, thoughts, or inspirations that we can't explain. We can't comprehend where these ideas come from. Every single person has them. Some act on them. Others dismiss them as folly. Still others treat them as "holy" or "thoughts put in your mind from the Devil." I place these two last groups together because the interpretation of "holy" or "evil" is really dependent on the perspective. Case in point is St. Joan d'Arc. This is a person whose inspirations were hailed as both "holy" and "evil!" She ultimately died for an ability to comprehend her world on a level that many others could not.
Intuition is a gathering place of the senses. As human beings we are genetically wired to take in all the input from all our senses in order to comprehend our environment. Somehow we are able to go beyond that and move into the realm of intuition. An example is a doctor who is able to comprehend a patients symptoms and is able to offer a diagnosis that is not necessarily a direct result of analyzing the data set resulting from various reports and tests. There are many examples where a doctor has managed to solve a problem through an intuitive sense of what all the data means. Sometimes this gets reported as "well it just didn't feel right" or "I had a gut feeling" or "something was tingling in my mind." I am interested in learning more about the nature of intuition.
Heinlein in "A Stranger in a Strange Land" coined the word "grok." This word means the ability to comprehend something at a level akin to synergy. I have found that I apply "grokking" to an ability to comprehend something even though the data available is imcomplete. We as human beings are also wired to fill in the gaps. "Seeing" sometimes invlolves filling in the gaps or reorganizing the information in order to comprehend it. This can sometimes be very useful and sometimes can lead to unfortunate dismissive behaviour. "This is nonsensical. Discard it," is our brain's way of saying that the observation or input is outside this pattern matching wiring we have. Einstein had trouble comprehending Quantum Mechanics and for many years dismissed it. The theoretical scientist who calculated that 10 neutrinos from the Sun would impact with Chlorine atoms causing them to decay, was unable to have his calculations proven by experimental data for 30 years. He spent most of his scientific career defending what he knew to be true. It wasn't until more sophisticated instruments and new revelations of the characteristics of neutrinos proved that he was right. Just because we have trouble comprehending the Truth doesn't mean it isn't in fact true.
OB
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Passion
"And it will come to the question how much fire you have in your belly." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
As with every creative endeavour, the leader who assembles the team seeks dedicated driven talent. This dedication is often characterized as "passion." The unique spin on this is the middle part of of the first sentence, "... who assembles the team..." Every team I have participated in is based on something that can turn any hot-blooded skinner cold - compromise. Compromise is disguised in many clever ways like collaboration ("I want you two to collaborate on that texture."), direction ("I think that idea needs a little more direction."), and brainstorming ("Let's all get together and brainstorm your idea."). Depending on how this compromise is characterized can make or break the level of passion your team has.
Collaboration, direction, and brainstorming are all valuable tools in the leadership toolkit, but like any tool they can be used for good or evil. The trick is to embrace the creative spirit and encourage the same with your team. What is this creative spirit? An article I read once on unleashing your creativity describes several techniques to enhance your creative thinking. These techniques centre around a return to an almost child-like innocence. Easy to conceive but challenging to do for many.
In my experience, as we grow from child to adult we learn about our environment. Part of that learning includes experiencing pain. Pain causes protective instincts and develops inhibitions. Being teased about your silly dancing. Being advised by a parent that you can't get a job by drawing. These events help us avoid further pain. This can also have the opposite effect for some. The pain is what drives them to excel. They have an axe to grind and something to prove to the world. Both of these can result in a person making their talents a protected and exclusive entity. The challenge is that these talents are now not available for a team. Team passion is all about "play."
I define passion as an ability to sustain an intense enthusiasm. Passion is about the will to suffer the challenges of failures to celebrates the successes. Passion is about approaching each new obstacle with the same enthusiasm and strength of will as the first. Not the previous obstacle, but the very first when you went in with fresh eyes and immense enthusiasm.
Not many people can do this. Not many can look at this kind of activity and maintain that level of innocence. Conventional wisdom says learn from your failures and avoid making them in the future. We are naturally wired to avoid pain. Failure is often painful. But it doesn't need to be. Depending on what you are doing, failure is vital to success. NASA would never have made it to the moon without umpteen failures. The point of failure is to learn.
A fool fails twice at the same thing. A fool punishes first-time failure. It takes a wise leader to understand the power of first-time failure and use it as fuel to drive the passion of the team.
What kills passion? Fear of pain. If failure is punished, failure equals pain. Let's contrast this for a moment. Some say pain means gain. My fitness coach used to drill me with that mantra. PAIN MEANS GAIN! Fair enough, but here the pain is being used as a motivator not as a hinderance. Pain that defeats comes in the form of comments like, "I knew that idea wouldn't work" or "Why did you waste so much time on that?" We all do it. We do it to ourselves and each other. The second a team starts to attack itself, you are dead.
Why do teams attack themselves? Ego. If the team is a group of egoes, it's not long for this world. Even if it is a group of individuals, it is vital that the team think as a single entity where the ego of the team is the shared ego of everyone. One person's idea is not owned by them. This takes a humility and willingness to share that I have not often found. On those rare occasions that I have been privileged to be part of a team that behaves this way, we were unstoppable. In the process we sacrificed our individuality.
Passion is rooted in the Latin "pati" which means "to suffer." Team-based passion is created through the ability to suffer the loss of your individual ego. The trick here is that EVERY MEMBER of the team must do this or all is lost. I sound melo-dramatic, but trust me, the second one individual ego shows up, two things can happen. EIther the team dissipates and you are left leading a group of individuals, or the team ejects that ego and is now incomplete and must go through a process to rebuild and recreate itself. Fact is, the phoenix that rises from the ashes is not the same bird that was consumed by the destructive fire.
Think hard about your willingness to be passionate and your ability to "leave your ego at the door."
OB
As with every creative endeavour, the leader who assembles the team seeks dedicated driven talent. This dedication is often characterized as "passion." The unique spin on this is the middle part of of the first sentence, "... who assembles the team..." Every team I have participated in is based on something that can turn any hot-blooded skinner cold - compromise. Compromise is disguised in many clever ways like collaboration ("I want you two to collaborate on that texture."), direction ("I think that idea needs a little more direction."), and brainstorming ("Let's all get together and brainstorm your idea."). Depending on how this compromise is characterized can make or break the level of passion your team has.
Collaboration, direction, and brainstorming are all valuable tools in the leadership toolkit, but like any tool they can be used for good or evil. The trick is to embrace the creative spirit and encourage the same with your team. What is this creative spirit? An article I read once on unleashing your creativity describes several techniques to enhance your creative thinking. These techniques centre around a return to an almost child-like innocence. Easy to conceive but challenging to do for many.
In my experience, as we grow from child to adult we learn about our environment. Part of that learning includes experiencing pain. Pain causes protective instincts and develops inhibitions. Being teased about your silly dancing. Being advised by a parent that you can't get a job by drawing. These events help us avoid further pain. This can also have the opposite effect for some. The pain is what drives them to excel. They have an axe to grind and something to prove to the world. Both of these can result in a person making their talents a protected and exclusive entity. The challenge is that these talents are now not available for a team. Team passion is all about "play."
I define passion as an ability to sustain an intense enthusiasm. Passion is about the will to suffer the challenges of failures to celebrates the successes. Passion is about approaching each new obstacle with the same enthusiasm and strength of will as the first. Not the previous obstacle, but the very first when you went in with fresh eyes and immense enthusiasm.
Not many people can do this. Not many can look at this kind of activity and maintain that level of innocence. Conventional wisdom says learn from your failures and avoid making them in the future. We are naturally wired to avoid pain. Failure is often painful. But it doesn't need to be. Depending on what you are doing, failure is vital to success. NASA would never have made it to the moon without umpteen failures. The point of failure is to learn.
A fool fails twice at the same thing. A fool punishes first-time failure. It takes a wise leader to understand the power of first-time failure and use it as fuel to drive the passion of the team.
What kills passion? Fear of pain. If failure is punished, failure equals pain. Let's contrast this for a moment. Some say pain means gain. My fitness coach used to drill me with that mantra. PAIN MEANS GAIN! Fair enough, but here the pain is being used as a motivator not as a hinderance. Pain that defeats comes in the form of comments like, "I knew that idea wouldn't work" or "Why did you waste so much time on that?" We all do it. We do it to ourselves and each other. The second a team starts to attack itself, you are dead.
Why do teams attack themselves? Ego. If the team is a group of egoes, it's not long for this world. Even if it is a group of individuals, it is vital that the team think as a single entity where the ego of the team is the shared ego of everyone. One person's idea is not owned by them. This takes a humility and willingness to share that I have not often found. On those rare occasions that I have been privileged to be part of a team that behaves this way, we were unstoppable. In the process we sacrificed our individuality.
Passion is rooted in the Latin "pati" which means "to suffer." Team-based passion is created through the ability to suffer the loss of your individual ego. The trick here is that EVERY MEMBER of the team must do this or all is lost. I sound melo-dramatic, but trust me, the second one individual ego shows up, two things can happen. EIther the team dissipates and you are left leading a group of individuals, or the team ejects that ego and is now incomplete and must go through a process to rebuild and recreate itself. Fact is, the phoenix that rises from the ashes is not the same bird that was consumed by the destructive fire.
Think hard about your willingness to be passionate and your ability to "leave your ego at the door."
OB
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