The Importance of Being Bad

To produce great art, one must create a lot of less than perfect art. 

May I humbly suggest that this is an absolutely wise observation for us, who are dedicated to creating, devoted to producing and in the game of longing to make masterwork.

To make magic demands that we must generate a lot of mediocrity. [Please read that twice]. 

Yes, to arrive at a Sistine Chapel ceiling or a Taj Mahal or a Moonlight Sonata, you and I must exercise the bravery to risk. And dare. And get things (very) wrong (as we explore uncharted lands). Until we get things right. 

We need to be willing to fail. We need to keep going when quitting seems best. We need to ignore the critics and silence the inner cynic (oh how loudly it chatters!). And continue to produce work that seems bad in hot chase of work that will become amazing.

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Transcript

Failure is the price of greatness. I love the Teddy Roosevelt quote, man in the arena. And to paraphrase it is, know, respect belongs not to the critic, not to the person in the bleachers, not to the audience. Respect and admiration belongs to the person in the arena who has the dream, who has the vision, who rolls up her sleeves and has the guts to get the vision done. Anyone can be a critic and here's what I've realized critics generally criticize the work they most wish they did. And my invitation to you is simply remember a lesson life has taught me, which is failure is the price of greatness. Adversity is the price of ambition. And I would rather get to the end of my life bloodied and marred and scarred and say, I didn't spend the best years of my life.chit chatting around the water cooler. I didn't spend the best hours of my best days condemning and criticizing and being a naysayer. I spent the best years of my life gloriously standing in the fire of ideals, my goals, and trying to get what my heart's desires said I should do done. Even though I fell and I was bloodied and I was laughed at and I was criticized, sometimes hated, and people tried to tear me down. That to me is what life is all about. Get your dreams done because the world will be a better place because you are in it. And that is my prayer for the rest of your life.