What creative risks are worth taking? What consequences are you willing to live with if you fail? What is failure, by your definition? Is failing better than not trying?
Great piece, Jenny! There are so many layers to what you're unpacking.
What I take from these displays of creativity is not just the act of creation itself, but recognizing that not trying would lead to the kind of regret that keeps you up at night—the one that makes you wonder what could have been. That haunting feeling, whether it’s from fear of judgment, societal pressure, or something else, is the kind of regret that follows you to your deathbed.
I've lost track of my business flops at this point, but I can say with absolute certainty that I don’t regret trying any of them.
I’ve heard that as a creative, your job is to let go the moment you hit 'publish.' How it’s received can so easily kill your drive to create again.
I hate to use a Churchill quote but it's one I reflect on often. "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Thank you Chris!! I didn't know what I would have to say about the movie or his career before seeing it, or even afterward when I started writing. But you nailed it — it's that feeling of living with no creative regrets that is so priceless for the spirit.
I shared this quote with Mel on another thread, but I love what he said to Sam Fragoso in a podcast episode that was released the day after this post: "It's so silly in life to not pursue the highest possible thing you can imagine, even if you run the risk of losing it all. Because if you don't pursue it, you've lost it anyway. You can't be an artist and be safe."
And Cheryl Strayed had something similar to say at the workshop this weekend (paraphrasing until I type up my notes): No one is going to beg you to publish. No one will miss the book you don't write. Only you will. Write it for you. Do it to the very best of your ability, that is success. Surrender to your mediocrity (one of my all-time favorite lines of hers, and a future Doh post!)
Thank you for taking the time to weigh in and leave a comment here, it's so fun to think and talk these things through with you!
I wonder if the message is the whole point. I will never see this movie. I will also never forget that line. Being willing to leap for a creative urge is the kind of freedom I've sought my whole life. I know I have a Megalopolis in me, and I hope one day I'll have FFC's courage to set it free.
So beautifully said!! I am going to do an (unexpected) follow-up post after hearing him on Talk Easy in a podcast episode that came out the next day . . . one part that leapt out:
"It's so silly in life to not pursue the highest possible thing you can imagine, even if you run the risk of losing it all. Because if you don't pursue it, you've lost it anyway. You can't be an artist and be safe."
Because Doh is about our relationship to risk: What creative risks are worth taking? What consequences are you willing to live with if you fail? What is failure, by your definition? Is failing better than not trying?
What a perfect encapsulation of what keeps me coming back week after week!
Great piece, Jenny! There are so many layers to what you're unpacking.
What I take from these displays of creativity is not just the act of creation itself, but recognizing that not trying would lead to the kind of regret that keeps you up at night—the one that makes you wonder what could have been. That haunting feeling, whether it’s from fear of judgment, societal pressure, or something else, is the kind of regret that follows you to your deathbed.
I've lost track of my business flops at this point, but I can say with absolute certainty that I don’t regret trying any of them.
I’ve heard that as a creative, your job is to let go the moment you hit 'publish.' How it’s received can so easily kill your drive to create again.
I hate to use a Churchill quote but it's one I reflect on often. "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Thank you Chris!! I didn't know what I would have to say about the movie or his career before seeing it, or even afterward when I started writing. But you nailed it — it's that feeling of living with no creative regrets that is so priceless for the spirit.
I shared this quote with Mel on another thread, but I love what he said to Sam Fragoso in a podcast episode that was released the day after this post: "It's so silly in life to not pursue the highest possible thing you can imagine, even if you run the risk of losing it all. Because if you don't pursue it, you've lost it anyway. You can't be an artist and be safe."
And Cheryl Strayed had something similar to say at the workshop this weekend (paraphrasing until I type up my notes): No one is going to beg you to publish. No one will miss the book you don't write. Only you will. Write it for you. Do it to the very best of your ability, that is success. Surrender to your mediocrity (one of my all-time favorite lines of hers, and a future Doh post!)
Thank you for taking the time to weigh in and leave a comment here, it's so fun to think and talk these things through with you!
I wonder if the message is the whole point. I will never see this movie. I will also never forget that line. Being willing to leap for a creative urge is the kind of freedom I've sought my whole life. I know I have a Megalopolis in me, and I hope one day I'll have FFC's courage to set it free.
So beautifully said!! I am going to do an (unexpected) follow-up post after hearing him on Talk Easy in a podcast episode that came out the next day . . . one part that leapt out:
"It's so silly in life to not pursue the highest possible thing you can imagine, even if you run the risk of losing it all. Because if you don't pursue it, you've lost it anyway. You can't be an artist and be safe."
Stopped in my tracks by this paragraph:
Because Doh is about our relationship to risk: What creative risks are worth taking? What consequences are you willing to live with if you fail? What is failure, by your definition? Is failing better than not trying?
What a perfect encapsulation of what keeps me coming back week after week!