Oh boy have I failed. And you know what? I can now say this… I am proud of it.
I live in a remote village in the Philippines. How did I get here? Well, let me lay it out bare. I decided to follow my dream to have a studio in Berlin, so I sold all my possessions and biked out of Canada– I got there but I only had that studio for a few months. I had a dream to build a mandala mosaic of portraits– we finished it, but I we only got 1000 contributions. I tried to continue biking around the world– I only got to Italy before getting stuck. I gave my heart to a Dutch girl and followed her to the Philippines– and then that totally bombed, I ran out of money and settled into village life. I tried everything to leave, I tried to keep going with my projects, with my Filipino girlfriend Sarah, and… I failed.
Technically, in respect to my expressed goals, I failed miserably. And thus, here I am. I have lambasted myself with agonizing and thunderous critique for far too long. I have slowed down my adventures and I have sought the illusion of comfort as a consequence. And in this lull I have come to see
But, you know what… WOW.. have I lived richly along the way and been beset by fabulous love, friendship and adventure. Most importantly I have stayed 100% true to my heart, my dreams, my passions and my love… even if at times, I was so disapointed with myself that the wind had all but completely died to my sails.
Failure afterall is just a perspective. And a prerequisite. A prerequisite I can be proud to say that I have embraced with my all! Here’s some great words by Theodor Roosevelt on the matter.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. “
