The Telegraph UK has an interesting article written by Hanna Furness; a short interview with Tim Rice (That’s Sir Tim Rice to you!), the librettist who might be most well-known (at least to folks of a certain age, ahem) as the librettist for Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Lion King.
He had planned to be a lawyer.
He was good at tests, and he figured he’d ace his exams.
He didn’t.
In fact, every time he re-took them, his scores went down.
“When I went to do law, I kind of drifted through that and thought I can pass these exams. And I didn’t – I failed three times and each time I did worse and failed by a bigger margin.
“And that taught me so much. I always worry today when I see everybody has to pass – there’s very little failure these days. I think failure is the best thing for some people.
“It tells you whether you’re in the right job or the wrong one. It’s a cliche, but most people are good at something and most people are good at what they’re enthusiastic about.”
Failing stinks. It makes us feel icky – it challenges our perception of ourselves and our relationship with the world.
But oftentimes it either makes us look around for other options, or challenges us to dig in more deeply.
(So maybe it’s a win, even if it doesn’t really feel like it?)
Rock on, Sir Tim.
Indirect Routes 