Grit: An Antidote to Failure

3 Valuable Lessons from Jack Conte’s PatreCon 2017 Talk

In this post-modern age, where pop stoicism and self-help theories have completely engulfed humans, nothing motivates us more than listening to or watching a success story. Right?

I mean, YouTube and all platforms of digital content — even Medium — are loaded with success stories of individuals, who came out of nowhere and literally changed the whole landscape of business and many other industries.

However, even with the availability of all this ‘motivational stuff’, there are a lot of people who are still finding it difficult to cope with their failures — hence, struggling to achieve their desired results.

Why’s that so?

Well, last night I happened to watch Jack Conte’s PatreCon 2017 talk, and fortunately, this 40 minute-long talk provided me with a very reasonable answer to this particular question.

Now, those of you who don’t know Jack Conte, I feel sad for you guys. I mean, what are you guys even doing?

Still, for the sake of introduction, Jack Conte is a successful entrepreneur, who has climbed the ladder of success through a blend of persistence, hard work, and grit.

Unlike your average-self-proclaimed influencer, he is a brilliant content creator, filmmaker, musician, and entrepreneur — currently, working as the CEO of Patreon.

So, for your convenience, I have not only summarized the talk but have also extracted three valuable lessons, which can help you all in dealing with your failures and achieving better results.

1. Irrespective of how hard you try, you’ll fail

As apparent from the title of the talk — Nothing Works — Jack’s main emphasis was on this very idea that irrespective of how hard one tries, he can’t dodge failure.

Jack explained it from his own experiences that throughout his life, he had tried almost everything but still, he had to bear the brunt of failures.

On top of it, things were not getting any easier for Jack as he was consistently failing or in his words, struggling with ‘duds’.

From making animations during his summer breaks to mixing music albums, Jack didn’t leave any stone unturned to achieve success. However, all he could manage was a couple of hundred views on his YouTube videos and had to contend with playing music in front of an empty bar.

Having spent a major chunk of his life doing things, which didn’t work, Jack didn’t stop trying because he knew that there was nothing abnormal about failing. Rather, he viewed it as normal, and therefore, he kept pushing till he eventually struck gold.

2. Don’t lose heart: Keep experimenting

If there is a list of creative people, who should be admired for experimenting with a plethora of content, Jack Conte’s name should be at the top of it.

I mean, from doing voiceovers for video games to making music records, this dude literally tried everything. Not to mention, he also made music videos, animations, vlogs, and even did a morning show on YouTube.

The point is, even after doing all the stuff, Jack didn’t achieve what he wanted to. However, he kept trying; he didn’t stop experimenting. His failures couldn’t strangle him as he was willing to take new risks and try new things.

Yes, he experienced small phases of success as well but nothing lasted long. For instance, his music band — Pomplamoose — which he had started with his girlfriend/wife Nataly Dawn succeeded in getting recognition and love from the fans but again, it was like one moment of success in a lifetime of failures.

In Jack’s own words,

Pomplamoose was one thing. Pomplamoose was one try, one swing in a sea of duds.

So, to say that Jack Conte was consistently experiencing success would not be fair because he was just getting spikes of success in an otherwise flat curve of disappointment and failure.

Moreover, as Jack explained in his talk, it is even more disappointing to digest a failure after a period of success because, after experiencing success, you now have this expectation to not fail again. So, such a failure mostly leaves you with no motivation to go forward.

Even in such circumstances, he didn’t stop; he kept trying.

3. Grit is what actually enables you to deal with your failures

Last but not the least, Grit is one of the most valuable tools, if not the most, to deal with failures and to keep ourselves calm in the face of adversity.

Jack Conte, who had already tried everything, couldn’t achieve the success, which he had envisioned — eventually, lost his calm and got nervous.

Duds were finally getting on his nerves and he was about to experience an emotional breakdown. However, his grit came in handy and saved him from falling off the edge.

Most of us have this tendency of playing safe because humans mostly prefer smoother experiences. Thus, whenever life gets difficult, we tend to freak out.

Still, there is one valuable asset — Grit — which can save us, even in the worst of circumstances. The problem, however, is most of us are not even aware of it and that’s why most of us struggle with comprehending the true essence of life.

As Jack said,

Life is turbulence and grit is the ability to smooth out the curve.

So, irrespective of the intensity of the failure, grit has the potential to enable us for dealing with it — thus, making it possible for us to not lose heart and keep trying.

To conclude, Jack Conte’s story is a worth-listening tale — full of valuable lessons — vis-a-vis coping with our day-to-day failures and finding success in a sea of duds.

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