“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.
