FRINDLES AND FAILURE
When I was a kid I read all the time, and the stories have stuck with me. The ones I remember, the ones that comforted me, the ones that at times have given me courage. Stories are powerful, and stories in essence are just words strung together. Standing alone they don’t seem too strong but string them together and they become a force like no other. And still, if so many have power then individually they must hold power too. Some far more than we realize, like this word; failure. It is a scary one and awfully intimidating. I read a book once called ‘Frindle’ by Andrew Clements and illustrated by Brian Selznick. (Brian Selznick’s illustrations in any book make me swoon.) Frindle is about a boy who decides to give the writing utensil ‘pen’, a new name. He starts calling it a Frindle. Naturally his teachers are annoyed and think it ridiculous; but words are powerful. Especially when they are consistent. And so this boy keeps calling a pen, a Frindle, and soon everyone else is. It becomes a national phenomenon! He isn’t just creating a brand, but completely renaming something that has been known for centuries as a pen. It was just one word but it certainly caused a stir. As I was thinking about this story I thought about how words cause a stir- both good and bad. And if a simple boy in a story could change something, why couldn’t I in real life do it? Forget changing a word, why not redefine it? With millions of words it is hard to choose one, but I do think there is one that we have gotten all wrong. We avoid it like the plague and do everything in life to keep from becoming it. FAILURE.
Failure is currently defined in the Webster dictionary as follows:
A failure to perform a specific duty or action.
Lack of Success.
A falling short.
Geez. That’s scary stuff, but I think we’ve chosen the wrong word for that. A lot of people failed in history... A LOT. However, their failure was not a lack of success, rather it was a testimony to an attempt to live and/or dream out loud.
Thomas Edison found 1,000 ways to not make a light bulb. Did he fail? No, he was attempting to dream out loud, and he kept attempting. Over and over again until it worked. Orville and Wilbur Wright attempted so many times to fly, was it a lack of success? I wouldn’t say so. They kept attempting, they had testimonies of blue prints to show for it, and eventually those attempts led to living it. Flying high. Charles Schultz, the creator of Charlie Brown, repeatedly failed in high school and had his comics rejected. He was even rejected by Disney! If we keep the definition of failure as ‘lack of success’, then these statements would be all wrong. However, if failure is ‘a testimony to an attempt to living and/or dreaming out loud’, then without a doubt they all failed. They failed hard. Without failing they would have never found the success they did. Without attempting to live out loud! To dream out loud! They would have never known what it takes to fly, to have light, or how to make generations laugh. Without failure, we wouldn’t have any of it either.
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Fail. Just do it. Fail and keep going, learn from it. Find out what you can’t do so you discover what you can. Failure stretches us, teaches us, and helps us grow in a way that few other things can.
The current definition of failure is something that paralyzes us, crippling our risk taking skills. Nobody wants to be a lack of success or fall short. We all want to be successful… Success is an intimidating word too. Defined as ‘the accomplishment or aim of a purpose’ it can be scary. I mean how to get there from here?! Take a step, make attempts, one by one, day by day, take a risk. Draw the picture, write the story, design the graphic. Attempt and attempt again, there is no shame in living out loud, in pursuing your dreams. In fact, failure may be one of the best things you do today.
Go for it. After all, the worst that can happen is you have a beginning.