Turning Mistakes Into Gold

“And in our practical life, everything that we do on stage, I make so many mistakes on stage or forget lyrics or all kinds of disasters. And I just take them in stride. You can't make a mistake. You just create a new beat. And also, if you're performing, if you stay in touch with the people, you can do anything. You can tell them, I'm having a weird moment here. Yeah, right. And people go, It's okay, Patti. It's okay. They'll wait for you. They'll send you energy as long as you take it in and give it back to them. You can transfigure anything. It's the transformation of waste. You can take something and create a new thing.”

-Patti Smith

Hi friend,

How are you? I hope you’re doing well, and taking some time off to recharge.

I know I need it.

I came across the opening quote by Patti Smith while tuning in one morning to the Wiser Than Me podcast hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Solid gold!

The lessons her guests - Billie Jean King, Sally Field, Carol Burnett, Debbie Allen, Jane Fonda, and others - learned over the years are priceless.

We all make mistakes, which makes us human and not robots.

I take this back.

The same thing can be said about AI chatbots these days spreading their hallucinations.

So, throw in machines, too…

One day, I was hosting a full-day visual storytelling workshop in Durham, NC.