Misguided Advice

I love learning and getting advice from someone who is farther along in their creative journey than I am. However, I have started to notice a trend in some of the advice I hear. This trend comes from a good place but is often misguided, and that is the “I want to help you avoid the same mistakes I made.”

Now this kind of advice isn’t all bad. Like if it is helping someone avoid a scam, or if it can help someone save a bunch of time or money. Then, yes, please tell me now how to avoid these things!

However, the issue with a lot of the advice I hear that starts with “I want you to help you avoid the same mistakes I made” is the advice is often about making amateur or rookie mistakes in the medium and admitting that, they too, have made these same mistakes.

While the advice comes from a good place, it is missing one critical element. Part of the success the advice giver has had is often because they made these mistakes, not because they avoided them.

Failure, and learning from mistakes is the best way to grow as an artist. And it is important to let someone else fail, so they can later succeed.

Most artists come in fresh-faced, thinking we know all, and have these grand ideas they need to try. Even if these ideas are wrong, or overused cliches, in order to move forward, they must try it their way first. I was one of these artists, and anytime I heard advice that went against what I wanted to do, it only made me want to try it my way even more. Only in failing was I able to understand the advice and see its merit.

A common phrase I hear often is “You have to dig deeper.” To dig a deep hole, you have to start by digging through the surface. Creatively, this means you will probably be doing a lot of things other people have done, making similar mistakes, but it is all part of the process of learning and getting better.

Often the best advice is understood in hindsight when the person receiving the advice is ready to hear it.

I want people to keep helping others. Keep giving advice and tips, but it is important to let people fail. To let people try things, even if it is wrong. Making mistakes and learning from them is probably the most important part of someone's creative journey.