Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new Ed Catmull (Pixar co-founder)
My girlfriend Suzie and I have been watching quite a few Pixar movies recently and one of the reasons they’re so good is the fearless creative culture the company promotes.
I read co-founder Ed Catmull’s book ‘Creativity, Inc’ a few years ago where he talks about how they foster that culture.
He explains how ideas are challenged and tested to their limits and nothing is out of bounds in terms of feedback, with egos put to the side for the sake of the end product.
But he also says that new ideas are protected, acknowledging that all ideas go through a phase of “not-greatness” before they reach greatness.
He advises not trying to avoid mistakes and failure, but instead to fail fast.
Failure will happen if you’re trying to do new things, you can’t avoid it but you can control how you respond – seeing set backs as feedback on what direction to take next rather than as a personal affront.
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