Make An Imperfect Attempt

“All our movies suck to begin with. Our job is to take them from suck to not suck.”
— Ed Catmull, Founder and CEO of Pixar, President of Disney Animation

It’s a grave mistake to assume that a spectacular outcome started out spectacularly. We see Finding Nemo and we assume that the plot, character development, dialogue, etc were fully baked from the get-go.

Until we say that out loud, and then we realize, “Of course they weren’t. Someone had to create them.”

And what do we think of that process of creation? Was it perfect from the beginning?

“Probably not,” we think. Did it improve along the way? “It must have.”

Then why does Catmull’s description of Pixar’s job surprise us? Because the truth is, none of us like sucking at anything. And we assume that if people are good at something, they never sucked. Or if an end product is compelling, it must have never sucked.

This is utter presumption.

Brendan Boyle, legendary founder of IDEO’s Toy Lab, says he often tells people to make sketches to warm up creatively. “But I’m no good at drawing,” they say.

“How many drawings have you made today?” he replies. And after a beat, “And how many emails have you written today? Is it any wonder you’re much more comfortable with email?” What a brilliant way to reveal the fallacies keeping us from progress.

The reality is, everything that is, starts out as something that isn’t nearly as good as it will be. So go ahead and suck a little bit more. Don’t do the amazing version; take an imperfect first attempt. It hurts, but it’s the only way to create something spectacular.

You know what helps? A community of learners. Call them what you will, but becoming together makes the process a lot less painful. You’re welcome to learn with me and my people here.

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