Video: Why Do We Ignore the Role Failure Plays on the Way to Success?

There comes a point in any passion or career when you feel like you hit a brick wall; you feel like you’re standing there motionless while everyone else is carrying on achieving things and becoming more successful than you — whatever your definition of success.

But as you’ll understand once you watch this fantastic two-part video series, everybody who has ever achieved anything has gone through this (sometimes many-year-long) phase. We just never hear about this lost chapter in their lives.

As an example of this, the video uses one of the most highly-regarded geniuses to ever live: Leonardo da Vinci. Delve specifically shares da Vinci’s story because if anybody had to deal with tough times on their way to greatness, it was him. But chances are you’ve never heard of da Vinci’s difficult years.

In a youth-obsessed culture that views 30 as some sort of brick wall beyond which nothing of significance may happen, the realization that da Vinci spent the time between his 30th and 46th birthday experiencing failure after setback after failure drives home the point that ‘overnight success’ is almost always a misnomer.

Delve shows that many of the world’s greatest names — be they artists, scientists or musicians — struggled for many years with failure. What set them apart is that they never threw in the towel to chase a shiny new dream or aspiration. They kept practicing, kept learning, kept plugging away until they broke through.

Coming in at almost six minutes each, both videos are well-worth your time, no matter what point in your artistic journey you currently find yourself at. And if you’re not experiencing a rough patch right now, be sure to bookmark these for when you are. They might give you that does of encouragement you need to keep on keeping on.

(via ISO 1200)

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