Letting it fail, The problem with always being ready to jump in.

Letting it Fail, the problem with being ready to jump in.

Have you ever been so invested in something that you can’t bear the thought of it going away?  I have that problem with artists, I hate the thought of them quitting.  I have one friend who once said to me, “you make me feel so guilty!”  I avoided her for a while after that.  The last thing I want to do is make people feel awful about their art.

What is a helicopter friend?  What is a lawnmower one?  Helicopter friends hover over your project/endeavor (art career) and are always there to drop in and rescue you.  Even if there is nothing wrong.  Lawnmower friends are ones who clear every obstacle from your path so you have a clear field to success.  The problem with them doing this is you never learn how to cope when you fall flat on your face.  When our friends let us fail at things, we learn first; how much we really want to succeed, if at all.  If we don’t want it that bad, this is a good time to learn, at the beginning.  We also learn to persevere.  You need to have a tough hide and the endurance to pick yourself up.  The other thing we learn is how to rescue ourselves.  There is an art to pulling yourself up from the bottom and if you have never crawled out of a hole, you don’t trust you can.

If everyone had helped me that way, I would never know what I can accomplish.  Many of my biggest fans were hoping I would be discovered.  They think being an artist is a lot like being an actor or singer, I just need to get in front of the right person and my future would be made.  They should look at all of those “one hit wonders” who didn’t have to scrape their way to the top.  The ones who did, survived or at least have a home and retirement to show for it.  People who rescue us or clear our obstacles are robbing us of valuable lessons in life that will make or break our art careers.

As for my friend? She has a 9 to 5 but paints for the pleasure of it.  Her talent isn’t lost, her ability is still there and she isn’t a starving struggling artist.  It is alright, I want her to keep loving what she does.  That is the most important thing to me.  If I had saved her from everything, she might have fallen on her face in the end and never created another thing. 

Ultimately, this is your art to love to do anyway you want.  Don’t let anyone clear the road to a goal you aren’t invested in.  This is your choice always.