The Pathway to Excellence

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”_Pablo Picasso

David Byles and Ted Orland write an interesting story—which is relevant to the topic of today— in their book, Art & Fear. The story reveals a subtle trap that keeps many brilliant, ambitious minds from making great things happen. 

If you are someone who aims at an audacious goal but has been unable to make meaningful progress due to the syndrome of analysis paralysis, I think you will find this narrative pretty useful.

After reading the story, you will understand that the trick to success in whatever we seek lies in making a start, having tolerances for mistakes, gaining traction and improving the process of doing the work. All these apply, whether we desire to master a skill, build a business, or mold a pot.

Now let’s get down to reading the fascinating story:

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups (Group L and R)…

All those (Group L) on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced…

(And) all those (Group R) on the right would be graded solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. 

Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group (L) being graded for quantity. 

It seems that while the “quantity” group (L) was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group (R) had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

As you can see, it turned out that all the best pots came from the group that was focused on production; the quantity group that was engaged in the most essential activity: doing the work.

And the unambiguous reason is because they were busy doing something, honing their skills, and improving their system. Unlike the other group that was putting off the real work under the guise of having to make something flawless.  

This story is a classic example of the true path to excellence and the insidious danger of perfectionism. You see, it’s only by actually doing the work that we develop the relevant skills necessary to produce something great. 

Your masterpiece will likely not happen on your first attempt. Therefore, you need to be willing to churn out a good number of ‘pots’ to eventually get to your best mold. 

The prolific inventor, Thomas Edison was right after all; genius is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration.