You have to live with being wrong.

In my life, there’s a Before and After realizing what being wrong could do for me.

It was a journey. Failure wasn’t just embarrassing, it was like a spark on a gasoline fuse. If I screw this up, I’ll never work again. (I may have had some imposter syndrome in there, too. 😉) You know the drill. But being wrong unlocks so much: innovation, collaboration (no one wants to work with someone who can’t be wrong), even refinement. In writers’ circles the phrase “kill your darlings” comes up a lot. Learning to be wrong teaches you to see your goal clearly: the work, not your ego.

I’m grateful I went through it.

Because now I’ve driven full-tilt into enough walls to know, definitively, that failing is the default.

My process is built on the assumption that we will be wrong most of the time. It’s a feature, not a bug. Taking the pressure off “right” allows it to emerge organically, You don’t plant flowers in flower pedals; you plant them in compost. The goal is success, and the method is failure.”