On the year of one's failure
May. 15th, 2026 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
posicScott D. Clary writes in Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/scottdclarypage/posts/pfbid0whSwJB9pg1c3JGxWkJw2LUC7PKan9UCggCThdNAucvgz1dSnSsYf458X6egJQuHjl :
A pattern in every person I've interviewed who built something lasting: They all have at least one story about a year where everyone thought they were failing. Including themselves. That year was usually the turning point. Not despite the failure. Because of what the failure forced them to learn.
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I had quite a number of "unusual" or "irregular" years with various distractions and low work productivity, but speaking of turning points, I think that I had two. The first one was 2006, when I learned to write books (up to 300-400 pages) and very long articles (like 80-100 pages) with reasonable speed and efficiency. The second one was 2015, when I started writing really a lot of medium-sized journal articles (like 30-60 pages). The former skill was suspended since Spring 2014 and restarted again in Fall 2019. The latter one remained in use from 2015 to 2025, with a partial exception of Spring 2021-Summer 2022.
A pattern in every person I've interviewed who built something lasting: They all have at least one story about a year where everyone thought they were failing. Including themselves. That year was usually the turning point. Not despite the failure. Because of what the failure forced them to learn.
***
I had quite a number of "unusual" or "irregular" years with various distractions and low work productivity, but speaking of turning points, I think that I had two. The first one was 2006, when I learned to write books (up to 300-400 pages) and very long articles (like 80-100 pages) with reasonable speed and efficiency. The second one was 2015, when I started writing really a lot of medium-sized journal articles (like 30-60 pages). The former skill was suspended since Spring 2014 and restarted again in Fall 2019. The latter one remained in use from 2015 to 2025, with a partial exception of Spring 2021-Summer 2022.
