Friday, June 10, 2011

Author Paulo Coelho on not trying to follow guidelines

Renowned author Paulo Coelho ("The Alchemist" and many others) as part of the Berghs School 2011 Exhibition. Coelho says he reached a turning point in his life during one college assignment: when he stopped obsessing about following guidelines and pleasing his instructors and instead did his best and was committed to the results.

This is an example of a "deliberate mistake" working out quite well indeed. Coelho challenged his own assumption that success equated to deducing and exactly matching the teacher's expectations, and from that found that relying on his own voice and instinct creates a more profound kind of success.

Paulo Coelho – on the fear of failure. from Berghs' Exhibition '11 on Vimeo.


Transcript:

Every time that I have to present a thesis or a paper, when my school asked me to do this, I said, "I have to please my teacher, I have to follow exactly what she or he taught me." That was the wrong approach, in my opinion.

So one day I decided to write about things that really touched my heart. And I remember while I was studying law, they asked me...I don't remember exactly what was the paper for, but I decided to write about Caligula, the Roman emperor, and this constant struggle between our good part and our evil part. I wrote about Caligula and I said, "I'm lost. Nobody's going to accept this." I'm going to be...not punished, but they are going to give me a very low degree. It happened exactly the opposite. They said, 'This is quite original.'

I just wrote about Caligula because...I was fearing not to follow the teacher's instruction. At the same time, I said I have to break with this idea. Because I have something different to say. The subject is important, but you don't really need to follow the guideline. Because the guideline, at the end of the day, is just to discuss the subject.

So this Caligula paper for me was a turning point. And since then, my fear of failure... it still exists, because you don't get rid of this in your lifetime. But I'm never paralyzed by my fear of failure. I say OK, I'm doing my best. And from the moment I say, "I'm doing my best," after sending a new book, or a new article, to the publisher or the newspaper. I sit down, I breathe, and I say, "I did my best. I put in all my love, I did it with all my heart." Whether they are going to like it or not, it is irrelevant. Because I liked it. I'm committed to the thing I did.

So far, no one ever refused or criticized anything, because when you put love and enthusiasm in your work, even if people don't see, they realize it is there. That you did this with all your body and soul. I encourage you to do this. And don't worry about fear of failure - actually, this is a human feeling. The important thing is to move beyond this fear, and do what you think you should do.

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