We love it when we come across a great article from the ‘motherland’ aka Australia.  Every now and then these absolute gems come across our path and we feel compelled to share. This article, entitled ‘We should teach our children how to fail’ written by Jacqueline Maley appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on July 16th, and comes off the back of an interview with Artist James Powditch.

Powditch was and entrant in this year’s ‘Archibald Prize’ (the most important artistic prize for best portrait in Australia). Powditch’s entry didn’t make the Archibald and in an interview with journalist Andrew Taylor he confessed that “Really, honestly, my career is going nowhere.”

What struck the author about Powditch’s honest review of his work, was his knack for “plain talking” and his “blunt and un-self-serving admission of public failure.” Maley went on to say the following:

“We live in a time where narcissism is normalised and where social media gives us the power to spin our own lives with the calculation and fabulation of a team of marketing executives.  Even though we know it’s all rubbish, people’s constant self-promotion on social and traditional media, the scrolls of perfectly styled family holidays and just-so children, the odious retweeting of compliments to oneself, it still coats the walls of the modern world, and is incredibly difficult to escape” and….

“Failure, and its close cousin, regret, teach foresight, problem-solving and (hopefully) better restraint next time. Failure also reaches us compassion and empathy, because it humbles us and knocks the smugness out of us. Best of all it reaches us resilience, which is surely the best trait any parent can foster in a child.”

Touche we say! For the full article and darned fine read, click on this link.