A master of the art of pottery split his class into two groups for a one-month project.
Group A was given these instructions: “Take all month, and build a single, exquisitely perfect pot. Just one, and make it absolutely flawless!!!”
Group B was given these intstructions: “Create as many pots as you possibly can in the next 30 days! Don’t worry about perfection. Go for numbers!”
Both groups set out to complete their tasks. Group A set to designing the perfect pot. They collected and read entire libraries of pot-building literature, ancient and contemporary alike. They consulted great gurus of pottery. They drew blueprints, revised them and drew more, then more still. They searched far and wide for the perfect clay, mixed with holy water, and a hand-chiseled potters wheel of the finest Tibetan granite. They prepared and prepared and prepared, and finally, near the end of the month, built their pot.
Group B began the project by immediately throwing balls of clay on their potter’s wheels and spinning pots. Again and again and again. Dozens, then hundreds of pots.
At the end of the month the master entered the room and reviewed the work of both groups.
Group A had designed and engineered for 28 days, and had finally built their single pot one day before the deadline. The master had to admit, their stack of research and design drawings were impressive indeed. But since no one in the group had developed the skills of actual pot-spinning, the work looked amateur at best. As the group lowered their heads at the master’s review, he walked over to look at Group B’s work.
Group B had begun immediately throwing balls of clay on the wheel and spinning pots. They worked and worked, and in the end they’d built nearly 1000 pots. The first 100-or-so pots were obviously built by the hands of amateurs. But the quality of the later batches of pots was exquisite. Flawless, even. In their practice of building so many pots, they had become as skilled and masterful at the art as the master himself.
–The End
The point I love about this story is this: Once you’ve identified your goal, throw the freeking clay! Research, reading, interviewing, 4-year degrees, Masters, PhDs, those are all well and good. And they all play second fiddle to just throwing the freeking clay.
Throw it and screw it up. Throw it again and make one baby step of improvement. Throw it again and get a little better each time. The entire Library of Congress doesn’t have enough reading material to substitute the simple action of just throwing the freeking clay.
