Last week we had Adam Knight come and talk to us about how he went about starting his own production team and what factors led him to success. It was really interesting listening to someone who essentially started with nothing when he moved to Portland and how he managed to create a strong network that built the foundation of his studio. He listed what three factors lead to success in his projects and reflected on how his failures shaped his future.
The three factors he listed were, delivery of quality work, the relationships made with clients to instill trust, and bringing what you have to the table to provide value to a team. What resonated with me the most was the delivery of quality work and the failure to meet expectations not for a client or someone else for myself.
Oftentimes as creatives, I feel as though we are our own worst critics. When you spend so much time working on something, it is easy to be hypercritical of things only you might see. It can become quite debilitating at times. I won’t go on to say that I allow myself to present things that are half assed, rather, the pressure to have work that is immaculate inhibits my ability to finish work, which in of itself, is a failure to deliver quality work.
One of the realizations I’m coming to here at Seattle Central is how toxic the aim for perfection actually is and how it is not actually achievable with our workload and deadline, let alone with the experience we have. Rather than strain myself with minute details, I am learning to enjoy the process and use this space as one to explore. Without sounding cliche, I want to use my time here to be less critical and allow myself to make mistakes in order to learn and gain experience because I may not have a chance to do so once I graduate.
Although I want to strive for excellence in everything I do, moving forward I want to set realistic expectations and allow myself to fall short from time to time.