How to Embrace Failure & Turn Fear into Success
What a common James Cameron failure can teach you about life...
Morning Drafters,
I’ve been thinking about childhood, the school system, and what we were taught.
We were taught how to succeed totally wrong.
As adults, it’s so painfully obvious when you see an adult attempt to do something versus a child.
A child just does it.
Adults are cautious.
All fear in their approach.
An adult will read books, study, and take a course.
Anything but actual ACTION that pushes the needle.
All to avoid the dreaded word.
The word that shall not be named.
“FAILURE”
I have read and re-read this book that improved my life.
Really gave me a framework for how we should treat failure.
The book is called “Go for No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There”
The book teaches you that failure is a stepping stone - plain and simple.
It’s a path you took - it didn’t work, so now you know.
Failure is not what we have been told it is.
Something that can be avoided.
Something that will destroy you.
Failure is not evil.
It’s a necessary part of the process that teaches you.
It is, however, something that is mocked in our society.
Something that is thrown in the face of winners.
I saw Twitter say, “I can’t wait for Avatar 2 to flop, so I can laugh at James Cameron.”
Why would you want to mock someone who pushes the bar so high?
Think about it: when you see someone like James Cameron, who has created some of the biggest and most successful movies of all time:
Titanic
Avatar
Terminator 2
Aliens
It is easy to forget all the failures and setbacks he faced along the way. But the creative process is full of losses, limitations, and things we'll never see because they can't be executed.
Yet, Cameron keeps pushing the envelope, never giving up on his vision, and that's something to be respected and admired.
Bro has been on and about the blue people for literal decades at this point, but when you see the footage - it makes sense.
It’s goddamn gorgeous.
It pushes the boundaries of what special effects in cinema can achieve.
He pushes the bar, and everyone else eats off the years of hard work and failure he endures.
So let's embrace failure and see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Let's not be afraid to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and take risks, even if it means the possibility of failing. Ultimately, the willingness to fail and the determination to keep going will ultimately lead us to success.
We see the glossy parts - the wins.
The creation process is full of losses, limitations, and things we will never see because he couldn’t execute his imagination.
That is the weirdest part of being a creator - if you can execute a strong 70% of what you saw - you might be happy.
The box office reports are in - one of the biggest gambles in cinema history ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ Opens To $134M
Do I care if there is an Avatar 2, 3, 4, or 5?
My opinion on the film is irrelevant - I respect that James is going after it - still holding on to what he feels is his failure point and pushing the pedal to the metal.
A lesson to be learned in that.
Best,
Jordan “Why Give Up? You Got One More In You” Baylor