Fear of Failure
I wrote this article for an online magazine that no longer exists so i thought i’d post it here - Lottie.
Many creatives have worked their entire lives to get to where they are today. Sometimes when you have put so much time and energy in to something the one thing that stops you in the end is fear of failing. Fear that nobody will like the style you’ve worked for years perfecting, nobody will buy the product you’ve been working or you’ll just end up working in retail forever. Sometimes this stops you putting work out there and in worse cases it can even stop you making work
This fear of failure is also incredibly common for graduates of creative degrees. Especially since you’ve got all that debt, your whole family watched you graduate and you have to explain to them now why you’re working in Topshop instead of a lovely well paid art job.
Before I left university, I had a lovely conversation with one of my tutors about what I was planning on doing after I left. I was honest and said I really didn’t know. He gave me two pieces of advice which have stuck with me and I hope will also help you. The first piece of advice was to
”always introduce yourself as an artist”
(maker, designer, illustrator etc.). even if you work full time in a café and you haven’t sold any of your artwork in years. You are still an artist. Your current situation in life doesn’t devalue your skill and creativity and you must act as such
The next piece of advice he gave me was possibly the most important and ties in with the first one:
“You can only ever fail as an artist by quitting”.
I regularly remind myself especially when business is bad or I’m having a creative block, that I haven’t failed until I’ve given up completely.
One of my biggest creative influences is James murphy. For those who don’t know, James Murphy is the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist behind the band LCD Soundsystem. As I’m an illustrator it may seem odd that my biggest idol isn’t also an illustrator, but James Murphy has taught me a few things about being a creative that I never learned in art school.
A few years ago a friend of mine sent me a link to an interview with Murphy. James outlines his struggles with laziness. How he dropped out of college to pursue music but then stopped making music. But he realised it wasn’t laziness it was actually a crippling fear of failure. Having always been the “precocious and smart” guy, he feels that it’s a lot of pressure to be the most creative and make interesting and exciting things to the point where the pressure is too much to handle and you just quit (which as we know is the only way you can really fail).
I suppose the reason I wanted to write this article and offered to do it in the first place is because I’ve been down the path of hating myself because I was lazy. And being frustrated because I was so aware of it but couldn’t do anything about it. If you take anything away from anything I have said here it would be this: if ever you are frustrated at how lazy you are it’s always worth asking yourself
“am I scared of failure”.
And remember the only way you can truly fail is by giving up entirely.
To quote another fabulous musician Marc Rebillet: “Nobody gives a fuck about your creative integrity, none of it matters. All that matters is you’re here, working, making shit!”. Couldn’t have put it better myself to be honest.