Does Failure Play a Part in Creativity?

Two months ago, I hit publish on my first solo podcast episode for Unscripted with Dee Stoppa. The goal was to document my reality as a founder – messy, unpolished, and real. Truthfully, I chose audio because I was tired of battling the perfectionism that paralyses my writing. My personal blog was a chore, and I challenged myself to make some changes.

I feel like we’re quickly losing trust in all types of content, wondering if it was written or edited by AI. Are we going to start embracing human, imperfect forms of expression? I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I started to search, and I came across an interesting idea: we are craving Wabi-Sabi – a Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in imperfection and transience. In a digital world of synthetic perfection, our typos, pauses, and shockingly irregular posting schedules are the only proof that we are human. 

As I kept reading, I wanted to know: Does failure actually help us create?

The science says yes. In fact, your brain requires error to innovate.

Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull famously describes early creative ideas as “Ugly Babies.” They are awkward, vulnerable, and incomplete. If you judge them by the standards of a finished product (perfectionism), you will crush them before they can grow. Creative wellbeing isn’t about producing perfect work; it’s about having the patience to nurture the ugly baby.

The next story I came across inspired me. We love to talk about “overnight successes,” but we rarely see the data. Sir James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes of his vacuum before he got it right. He spent 15 years failing every single day. He didn’t view these as failures; he viewed them as data gathering. Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson calls this “Intelligent Failure” – taking risks in new territory where the only way to get the answer is to get it wrong first.

Then, I was reminded of the book I read a few years ago by a psychologist Carol Dweck. She discovered that when people with a “fixed mindset” fail, their brains actually show less electrical activity – they run from the error to protect their ego. But those with a “growth mindset” show a brain on fire with activity. They engage deeply with the mistake because that is where the learning happens.

Here’s the takeaway. If you are battling perfectionism like I am, try to reframe your mistakes.

If you’re curious about what that looks like in practice, come find me on your favourite podcasting platform: Unscripted with Dee Stoppa.