One Creative Moment is a daily email for founders, owners, and creators. You'll get insights, irreverence, and inspiration to help you build a better business & live a more creative life.
From the lips of Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds
If you haven’t yet, you may want to check out the dependably hilarious Smartless podcast. (Hosted by Jason Bateman, Canadian actor Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.)
I recently listened to this episode with Ryan Reynolds as the mystery guest.
(That’s the bit on the show, btw. One person brings a guest, the others don’t know who it is until after the show starts. Hilarity ensues.)
At around 00:24, Ryan dropped this gem:
“You can’t be great at something unless you’re willing to be bad at it.”
And I literally had to put my car back in park and start this note.
I know that failure is a necessary part of success. I know that perseverance is critical to achieving anything of note. I know that it’s okay to make mistakes.
But, if I’m honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been actively willing to be bad at something. Like, not “I’ll deal with it if it happens.” But “this might be bad, and I’ll do it anyway.”
For me, that means being willing to be bad at writing, running a business, getting clients, making LinkedIn work, trying new things, and so on. (Not to mention being a partner, parenting, music, gardening, and everything else in my life.)
Just the idea of letting go of my death grip on needing things to be good, to work, to not embarrass me brings an immense feeling of freedom.
I highly recommend it.
Breaking good,
James
One Creative Moment
by James E. Turner
One Creative Moment is a daily email for founders, owners, and creators. You'll get insights, irreverence, and inspiration to help you build a better business & live a more creative life.
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