Need encouragement? Here is some perspective on perceived failure and the initial opinions and criticism of others…
Flash back to 1977. An emerging director had just finished filming a movie in which he had personally invested millions of his own money, risking both his credibility and future. The film involved a relatively new and innovative style of movie-making and was populated by a largely unknown cast. The entire filming process was met with criticism and skepticism from beginning to end. Three weeks before the film’s release, all of Hollywood was talking about the problems with the movie. When the film was screened for the Fox board of directors “𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑝 ℎ𝑎𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑” it. A trailer campaign running since Christmas was pulled because of the negative audience reactions. The 𝐷𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 predicted it would be a complete flop. When the director previewed the film to a group of close friends, they offered him “𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠.” Finally, the director himself stated, “𝐼 𝑓𝑖𝑔𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑, 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒. 𝐼𝑡 𝑎𝑖𝑛’𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘.” In fact, he and his wife strategically planned a holiday getaway in Hawaii so they would be “unavailable” at the time of the release.
Anyone want to venture a guess as to the film? Want a hint? “𝑀𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢.”
The lessons? One, don’t let the opinions and criticisms of others deter you. They might just be wrong 
Two, don’t give up in the face of adversity and challenges. Keep moving forward. Success sometimes initially comes to us wearing the temporary disguise of failure.
[NOTE: Source material is from Garry Jenkins’ book “Harrison Ford: Imperfect Hero.”]
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