A thought on the enchanting, liberating freedom to fail

“I did scary things like that when I was a young woman. I had all of my 20s to fail. I wanted to be a stand-up and then I wanted to be Lily Tomlin. I had a chance to experiment and that’s riches beyond compare.”
— Emma Thompson

The quote of the day comes from a Stafford Collection interview with Dame Emma Thompson, whose stunning career has included acting, screenwriting, books, stage appearances and so much more.

I love this quote’s bravado. Thompson’s brightness was clearly visible young — I recall reading about how she had a professional agent even before she finished with Cambridge — and while she was busy, she wasn’t world-famous until she was out of her 20s.

She made an impression on film in the hilarious 1989 movie The Tall Guy, with Jeff Goldblum and written by Richard Curtis, and that came out when she was 30. She won her Oscars for acting (Howards End) and writing (Sense and Sensibility) in the years that followed. It seemed like a lot of success in short order, but the comment above gets to the years of discovery and work and trial and error that make it all happen.

Freedom to fail is a powerful thing. My friend and former executive producer Peter Gullage frequently encouraged us to take chances, and embrace the fact things may not work. Failure was recognized as a possible outcome, and not the end of the world.

It was brilliant advice, all the more potent knowing that somone had your back.