The Art of Failure

I am taking some time off of my day job to further UNPRLD in Japan.   I am sitting in the airport now, waiting for my flight to take off.  I realized in many things in life, the perception of success is extremely skewed.  What does this mean?

Let's take someone's Instagram page for example.  You see pictures of friends out in the beach, then pictures of them with some celebrity.  You see all these amazing foods that you've always wanted to try.  That person is living the lifestyle you want.  

But it turns out, that's not their life at all!  They don't just move around the city going to nice places and taking pictures of it.  You are seeing their life through rose tinted glasses.  It turns out, they are slaving away in a 9-5 job, and they are barely surviving life too.  The pictures they take may be from years ago.  Who posts pictures of their failures, saying, "I am so sad?"  

So what am I talking about for failure?  Let's take for example, a player on the UNPRLD team, Colin Beckford.  He recently won East Coast Masters, topping the tech score with Luke Trautwein.  Wow, Colin must be so successful!  He deserves every single bit of prestige he receives, but it wasn't always this way.  He had worked hard, and started from the very bottom.  Observe this freestyle.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P482kDoYCfQ

This is his very first freestyle.  Through many freestyles, from then until now, he has slowly worked his way up to the top of the leaderboard.  

It is so rare to see people like Takeshi Matsuura or Jake Elliot, to win a large contest in their first year of competing.  Often times, you work your way from the bottom up.

As famous painter Bob Ross once said, "talent is a pursued interest."  Take this interest, pursue it, and don't expect results to come.  It's okay to fail.