It's Ok, Next Time

Venise was getting her high school senior pictures taken at a studio. While waiting at the lobby, I spotted a class photo from a local high school hung on the wall with the tagline, “Failure is not an option.” I instantly had a negative reaction. Failure is not an option? It is statement like this that gives children so much anxiety and pressure. I’m 47 and I still make mistakes, so who are we to tell our children that they cannot fail?

Have you seen the film Edge of Tomorrow? I love it. I love how Cage, the main character played by Tom Cruise, has to fail many times to defeat one challenge and then fail some more to be able to move forward to the next challenge.

Failure is a must. Without failing, we don’t know how to get better at something.

I once spent a year practicing frying eggs. First time I was screaming when I dropped the egg into the hot oil. Second time the oil wasn’t hot enough. Many times later, after reading cooking blogs and watching youtube videos, I was better at controlling the temperature. A year later, I could fry an egg with ease.

When I first started shooting weddings I had a simple contract. By the tenth client, my contract became 2-3 pages long. Each client taught me something new. Each time I would say in my head, “Ah, should’ve add that into the contract. It’s ok, next time.”

I don’t see failing at something as a bad thing, but instead seeing it as just “missing a spot.” Even at a recent job, it went overtime by 2 hours. I trusted the client to keep it within schedule and didn’t discuss about overtime ahead of time. But it’s ok, next time.