Perhaps my all-time favorite inspirational quote comes from Winston Churchill:
Success consists of going
from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Particularly since it sometimes feels like everyone successful was assigned a publicist at birth, crafting perfect sound bites about how wonderful EVERYTHING has ALWAYS been, there’s something so refreshingly honest about Churchill’s statement.
[Or as Kelly Oxford quipped:
“Everything’s Perfect When You’re A Liar.“]
Listen, I’m tight with many bestselling authors — especially some major inspirational ones — and let me tell you, no one’s road has ever been all that smooth.
Each of them owes their success to exactly that: the ability to move from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
That said, I still want to begin 2014 by celebrating the recent successes of a few of my Creative Clients, folks who are all quite brilliant at transforming “failures” into Major Triumphs. For example:
Navaris Darson
My newest client is a wonderful writer/performer who’s just begun his first book — about his dating “failures” …
Yet in month #2 of working with me, Navaris also hit one of his six month goals: last week he booked and filmed a Guest Starring part on CBS’ 2 Broke Girls.
Annie Sertich
Annie’s putting the finishing touches on her completed darkly comic memoir — described as “if Larry David had written Eat Pray Love” — about her “failed” first marriage.
Meanwhile, this Wednesday, Annie continued her recurring gig on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Danah Palmer
Danah Palmer just finished the first solid draft of a memoir about her 18 years answering 911 calls — an emotional roller coaster if ever there was one, where the failures and successes are often about the difference between life and death.
And as for YOUR’S TRULY …
Well, along with polishing the movie script of DOWNWARD, and writing a new book and a play, I’m also associate producing WITH CHILD, an awesome indie film in the last stages of post production before it starts the festival circuit.
https://vimeo.com/85644394
Truthfully, I have absolute confidence in this movie, but as we start screening it for industry types, distributors, and festivals, I’m completely prepared to move enthusiastically between each and every tiny “failure,” any disappointment or momentary setback, towards what I know will be its Ultimate Success.
Samuel Beckett said it in typically succinct fashion:
In the end, that’s my modest goal for 2014:
I simply want to Fail a Little Bit Better.
I’m Wishing You, Too A Year of Failing Better (with Undiminished Enthusiasm, of course).
P.S. If you think you might want to work with me, CLICK HERE for a FREE consult on how you could FAIL BETTER in 2014.
