Angostura Bitters and the mistakes we live by - #28daysofwriting
Last Friday the legendary Creative Director Gerry Farrell gave a talk about all things 'ugly', and many stories revolved around how we deal with failure, or apparent failure. In one story he talked about Angostura Bitters, an alcoholic mixer with which I had a brief relationship during a passing phase of enjoying the ladies' drink "Long Vodka".
In the early days of the drink, the two brother team who created it decided to get recognition for their new drink by entering a contest. In an efficiency move, one was charged with choosing the best bottle for the job, the other brother placed in charge of the label production.
One small mistake: they didn't communicate on the size of anything.
When the bottle came back with a label that was far too big for the bottle, it was too late to fix. They entered the competition regardless which they promptly lost. However, one judge remarked about their "signature labelling", and the rest is history. Ever since, they have kept that original label, too big for the bottle with too much text on it.
In most creative organisations (including schools), the 'mistake' is what kills the idea before it even gets a chance to compete. Releasing even imperfect ideas, like a blog post rushed out in 28 minutes one morning, is better than ditching the whole damned thing. And we invent lame excuses for not creating / releasing / writing publicly. If I were to replace any of your school language with the Angostura story we'd end up with:
- Who'd be interested in (this drink)?
- I've spent all this time thinking about making (a drink) but I don't think people will try it.
- (The bottle) is the wrong platform for (this drink) - we need to wait until we buy the right one.
- The boss won't like (the drink) that I've made. Better I keep it quiet, never let anyone drink it, than go let him taste it first.
- OK, the boss hates (my drink) - it lost the competition - so we'd better throw in the towel.
- If I don't get permission to make (great drinks) then I just won't try it.
- I've got too many (drinks) ideas to choose which one to make first. So I'll do nothing.
I could go on. These excuses take seconds to come up with. Actually doing something takes a lot longer.
This kick up the backside, that no-one will make your ideas happen for you, is the very thing I go into depth in, on my new book How To Come Up With Great Ideas.
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