On Failure

I posted this on Facebook and got numerous responses.

Thoughts about failure–particularly in the realm of the creative? I’m about to embark on a time-consuming, expensive, possibly annoying, off-mission project! I’m giving it a 60% chance of “success.” And yes, I’ll talk about it once underway. But what is your opinion about chancing failure in a big way?
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And I should add—I’m not looking for advice, more what YOU know. I’ve failed spectacularly from time to time, and not on purpose. I’m not sure I’d call these “learning experiences” because often I was just trying to survive the chaos. To be honest, I don’t learn well when I’m upset. However, what my old friend Peter Frank says below makes sense to me.

Peter Frank, curator and art critic:

How much (of a) failure can you afford? It’s one of the best ways to learn – at the right moment…

Yehudis Fishman, Hassidic teacher:

from a Hassidic perspective, no intention for a positive accomplishment ever goes to waste; if it doesn’t seem to bring about its intended results, it still exists in the universe until someone, somewhere, sometime, actualizes it. Good luck!

Benjamin Alire Saenz, writer:

When you do something because you need to do it, and you dive in—where is the failure. You wrote the book you needed to write. And it didn’t get published? That’s not a failure. Failure resides in taking no risks. Failure resides in standing still because you are afraid. The issue is in how we understand and interpret what we do. To try and create something beautiful that comes out of you is called living.