Character Matters

I recently came across an article titled "What if the secret to success is Failure?" (article link)  The article is about an educator who teaches "character" in schools, and it's long term effect on students.

If you read Malcom Gladwell's Outliers (book), you know the theory that if you spend 10,000 hours doing something - you will become really good at it. Spend years practicing something, pull a bunch of all-nighters, get good grades and success right? NOOOO!

The article talks about this school called KIPP. Crudely put, the school takes a bunch of poor kids from the cities, and make them super smart by having them study all day- ASIAN STYLE! The teachers are like - holy crap - we made these kids super smart and they are all gonna get great jobs!  But as it turned out, a bunch of their kids started dropping out like flies when they got to college.  Then the teachers were like - ah shit! wtf happened?!

They started investigating and apparently... the kids who were optimistic, able to persevere and had strong "character" were the ones that graduated college and found good jobs. These select kids didn't necessarily have the scores in high school. But they were just more hardy and able to surmount difficulties, and they ended up surpassing their other classmates from KIPP who may have even had high test scores.  So the educators were like...  let's teach character in schools!

You see, just working really hard isn't enough. You can get 2400 on SATs, 4.5 GPA, President of this club and captain of sports team. You think those kids are smart right? Yeah, but they might also be weak. They are like a character in a video game that does 2000 attack damage and has only 20 hp. They can dish out, but they can't take it. They can kill anything that comes near them, but once they get hit, they are down. Those kids are so used to success, but they break down when they know they have failed. I know.. I was one of them.

My boy Rocky.. used to say "It's not how hard you can punch, but how hard you can get punched."

The artist lifestyle beliefs are able building character to become a successful artist. Yes, art and design techniques and principles are important. But it's also important on the holistic nature of yourself as an artist.

Read the article! (article link again!)