This is the fifth and final post in my artist development series. I hope you’ve found this useful or at least enjoyable. Please let me know what you think!

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Finally, along the way, while striving to achieve the improbable, we will encounter failure. In the short term failure means more than the lack of success, it may mean losing a client, or even worse a job. But in the long term we grow far more when we fail than when we succeed. President John F. Kennedy once said, “There are risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” While success is obviously our goal, we should not run away from failure. Foolish is the writer who upon reception of a rejection letter tosses their script. Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and then move on. As Merlin Mann says, “Failure is the existential equivalent of sit-ups”. Success can only be guaranteed by limiting risk, but taking smart risks is the key to greatness. Things won’t always go smoothly, there will be failures and setbacks. But the team that seizes these as opportunities for personal growth rather than personal gain at the cost of others will be the team that is strongest in the end.

So where does that leave us? Leading artists and creatives is routinely compared with herding cats. I cannot deny we can be a squirrely bunch to deal with. Eccentricities abound making it hard to get consistent results and performance from artists. However when given guidance and somewhere to channel their creativity, many artists find their creative output dramatically increases. This guidance most often gives artists merely a temporary identity and framework for their creative process though. For artists to truly flourish, they must recover their own identity. When artists define their own creative process and identity they are able to attain and sustain a high level of creative productivity. Sometimes the just need a little help along the way.

Filed under: Art by Jonathan