Remarkable Story on Learning and Failure

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.

– Frank Zappa

With creativity, it is not what you look for that matters, but what you find.1 In creativity, it is a lot about learning and failure.

Related: The Story of Two Roads

Let us share with you a great story to illustrate what we mean. It is about a pottery class and building the perfect piece of pottery.

There once was a potter who was teaching pottery making to a class of 20 students. As an experiment, the potter split the class into 2 groups, giving each group a simple yet different objective. His hope was to teach his class something about learning and its relationship to creativity and failure.

For group 1, the objective he gave was for each student to make one perfect pot.

For group 2, his objective was for each student to use up 100 lbs. of clay.

The first group struggled, working on one pot days on end. Most failed to get it right.

The second group went through a lot of clay and failed often. But through failure, they also iterated, learned, and perfected technique. By the end most had several perfect pots.

For us, there are two important lessons from this experiment.

First, it is important to consider the enablers of the (sometimes hidden) motivation that you employ.

Second, is the importance of not being concerned with failure (i.e. the importance of failure as a means of learning a new skill).

What do you think about this experiment in learning, motivation, and failure? Were the experiment results what you expected?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.