Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big hockey fan. A big hockey fan. And seeing that it’s May, it’s time for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And I’m all in.
My team is the Vancouver Canucks. Now I’m not Canadian but growing up in Pacific NW, the Canucks were the closest thing we had to a team, so Vancouver was the team we cheered for. This year, the Canucks were in the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Hopes were high as they had one of the best records in the NHL during the regular season. But unfortunately, they lost to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the second round. It was heartbreaking, but sometimes you got to lose to win.
There’s a theory in sports, that if you have a young team or a new group of players that are going into the playoffs for the first time together, that you need to learn to lose if you want to win. It’s a theory which explains why a team that was tearing it up during the regular season, falls flat in the playoffs. They haven’t learned to win yet. But a lot of times, once the team has suffered a crushing loss, they will turn around the next year and win it all.
It’s the same principal as the old saying that failure leads to success. But it all depends on how you look at it. What I mean is, once the sting of failure has subsided it’s important to take a step back and analyze what went wrong. This is a time to ask yourself questions and learn from your mistakes. You need to know what you did well and what you could have done better. You need to think about how you can modify your approach. You need to learn something. And then, if you failed at something you really want, you need to try again.
Face plant
Back when I was younger, I had the dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker. On my way towards making this dream a reality, I got my master’s degree in Documentary Film. As part of the curriculum, I was paired up with a production team and we were given a small budget to make a short movie. It was a great lesson in following the creative process.
As part of that process, we had to put together a rough cut of the film. It’s like putting together a first draft of an article, only instead of writing with words, you’re writing with video and sound. So, working as the primary editor on the film, I spent about a week stringing together the sound bites that would form the backbone of the film. It’s how I learned to put together a story in Journalism School. You start with the sound bites, then cover with video. A bit of a formula, yes, but hey, you do what you know. And once I was done putting it together, I submitted the rough cut for critique by my peers.
And it bombed. Like big time.
The reviews were not good. They called it boring, because it was 25 minutes of talking heads. They called it unimaginative, because the video just sat over the talking. They called it crap, because it was just a long form news story. There was a plot, but it had no rhythm, no style and no heart. They called it a loss, because I failed to grab the viewers’ attention. I was devasted, mortified and felt like a loser. But sometimes you got to lose to win.
Failing up
Although I had two partners, I could rely on to take over writing duties for the film, I didn’t quit. Partly because I’m a control freak, and partly because I wanted to redeem myself. I mean, I could do this, right? It was time to take a step back and take a long hard look at what happened.
The film had failed because I had relied on the formula I had learned in journalism school. But this wasn’t a news story. It was a movie. And as such it required a different approach. What it needed was an injection of style, some sort of creative editing and a show don’t tell mentality. That would allow viewers to see and experience what was going on for themselves. And though the film was boring it did have something going for it. It had a strong backbone. The basic storyline was laid out and ready to go, it just needed to be told in a more creative way.
Having reviewed the problems, got clear and formed a plan on what needed to change I got to work. That meant spending nearly 12 hours a day in the edit suite working until I was done. I reassembled the story shot-by-shot, sequence by sequence, and beat by beat. I injected style by finding a device, a sound effect, that I could use at the end of a sequence to signal the end of a chapter. It worked and I could tell. From there things just seemed to fall into place. It’s amazing how the universe will let you know when you’re on to something. The energy just naturally seems to flow.
A few weeks later, it was time to screen fine cuts. Having gotten the film to the point where it was watchable, I braced myself for the criticism. And I was pleasantly surprised. People loved it. The film was clear, concise and enjoyable to watch. It had gone from utter failure to success in record time. Because sometimes you got to lose to win.
The takeaway
I tell this story, not as motivation for the Vancouver Canucks to win a Stanley Cup, (although I’d like that. I’d really, really like that) but to illustrate a point. If you’re dealing with failure just know that it’s another step on the way to success. A stopping point where the universe is asking you to take a step back and evaluate where you are. Are you headed in the right direction? Or are you relying on an old, outdated approach? Are you fighting the universe trying to get something to work that just isn’t right for you, or is the timing just off? And in the end ask yourself the big question: what is it that you really want? These are just some of the questions to ask yourself when life requires a new approach.
Because sometimes you got to lose to win. Stay bouncy!
