“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston S. Churchill
I just read a short essay about the Wright Brothers. What struck me was two things. One, they could not have achieved what they achieved without their devoted and financially talented sister Katharine, and two, they spent many years on the beaches of Kitty Hawk crashing prototype planes. Years and years of failure.
But all we see is the final, triumphant “first plane” displayed at the National Air and Space Museum. All those failures? Disappeared into the sand. All the years of work are buried and out of sight. I think all those years should be unearthed. The two brothers spent years out on the dunes, morning after morning patiently experimenting with flight. While Katharine kept things together at home. The only witnesses to their continual efforts were the men staffing the lone beach first aid cabin. Every once in a while, someone would lend the brothers a hand, but other than that. No attention.
On December 17, 1903, after four years of mornings, the plane flew. It seems we all had more time at the turn of the twentieth century. Now we wouldn’t tolerate that kind of continual frustration.
In the modern world, it would only take about one year of constant failure, the pair would have cut their losses and devoted themselves to expanding their bicycle business. But they did not, they hung in there and did the work. It wasn’t as grim as it sounds. Wilber and Orville were not unhappy during their years of experiments, they were quite engaged because they were failing with enthusiasm.
Quitting is necessary if you are miserable. But like Wilber and Orville, even if success isn’t immediate, you may not be sad at all, you may not even care. What many of us discover is we become increasingly enthusiastic and happy as we inch closer and closer to the goal. The men who serviced the first aid station on the beach didn’t know what the brothers were about, but were happy to help, something interesting to break up the day, something delightful to distract them from the ordinary.
You too may be deeply immersed in a project that from the outside, looks like a series of setbacks, but to you or your team, it’s rather more like a series of steps forward, each more informed than the last. You are enthusiastic because what you do brings you joy. And as simple as joy is, it is also powerful.
Writing a book can take a long time. It may have many moving parts, and sometimes those parts don’t fit together or don’t turn smoothly. To keep at it, we need to find the joy, and somehow maintain the enthusiasm.
Are you working on a non-fiction book? Claim your enthusiasm!
Interview interesting people.
Travel to exotic locations in the name of research.
Deep dive into your subject and discover odd and interesting facts that may or may not make it into your book. You can use these in a blog or newsletter.
Are you writing a novel?
- Fall in love with language.
- Set your book series in a beautiful place that requires many visits to confirm flora and fauna. In every season.
- Set yourself up to cheerfully interact with social media followers and devoted fans.
For all writers:
- Style your writing space to be beautiful and comfortable.
- Allow yourself to be enthusiastic about the writing life.
- Volunteer at local and national conferences.
- Speak at both prestigious and quirky meetings and events. (The quirky ones are more fun).
- Create new products based on your books and works.
- Hang out with a writing tribe, either through a formal writing group or an informal critique group devoted to encouraging feedback.
When you love your project and love the work, the mornings it crashes into the dunes – again – don’t really matter. What matters is the wind, the sky, and the company of a beloved brother (or friend or husband). You pick up the prototype (AKA book), shake off the sand, and launch it again. Because it brings you joy.
Orville and Wilber loved working together. Their complimentary skills allowed them to work towards their common goal. Every day was a challenge, but every day was also fun. Even on the day a rival inventor flew his plane a longer distance than the Wright’s current record, they did not panic. The brothers discussed his success, publicly congratulated him, and applied some of his successes to their own next attempt.
When you wake up each morning consumed by thoughts of your next innovation, your next chapter, your next research trip, you have indeed succeeded. You’ve created an interesting life engaged in pursuing something larger than yourself, and you get to spend a good part of your day working in your zone. That kind of joy lasts longer than the brief satisfaction of a finished project.
May you wake each morning ready to stumble from failure to failure – with no loss of enthusiasm.
