It Has to be Bad at First

If you make things, then you know that the first time you try something, it isn’t that good.
Lorne Michaels says about SNL, “It has to be bad at first. Dress rehearsal is bad before it’s good.” In order to make things with a high level of craeft, we need to push through the discomfort of the fact that first drafts and first attempts don’t yield quality results.

Take the canvas tool roll pictured above. This is my first attempt at making a tool roll and my second attempt at making something with canvas. It’s a good start, but it has a lot of problems.

At this point we can get discouraged or we can reflect on what went well and what didn’t and make a plan to move forward. I encourage us all to lean into the latter.