Pushing Past Failure
Have you ever challenged yourself to learn a new skill or tackle a tough project, but no matter how much you planned ahead, issue after issue kept popping up and it just made you want to quit? Several times while building the Mythosaur Skull, I came extremely close to quitting.
Project Inspiration
Often in the Maker Space online, we see awesome and inspiring projects, which is part of the point! The reason I am making things today and putting them online is because I saw others doing it and was inspired to get started. Specifically for this project, Paul Jackman from Jackman Works was a huge inspiration! He makes massive power carving projects often from humble pallet wood.
This project has been on my mind for well over a year. During that time, I thought I planned every single step. I even thought I solved some problems ahead of time, such as building a beefier outfeed table that could support the weight of 25 2x4s.
Where Things Went Wrong
Despite all my planning, things started going wrong very quickly. I almost immediately found that my digital plans were not translating well into the real world, and kept having this issue pop up a few times. Once I had finally gotten the skull glued up, I came back out to the shop only to find massive gaps I hadn’t noticed when adding clamping pressure. The biggest errors though were when I accidentally broke the tips off the tusks, not once, but twice.
Not all makers are comfortable sharing their mistakes with the world. From the first projects I ever made, I have always appreciated folks like the team at I Like to Make Stuff who don’t hide their challenges and mistakes. They show them and lay out how they are going to move past it. They are a big reason I include most of my mistakes as well.
It is encouraging to see how others push past failure, but I will also be the first to tell you that it will feel completely different when it is happening to you. Honestly, there were several points during the projects I had to step away for a few days. Although, when the second tusk broke, a few days might have turned into a few weeks…
Getting Kicked While You’re Down
After pushing past so much failure with the build and power carving, I was finally in the easy home stretch. All I needed to do was make one last cut, and add some finish. I thought I had pushed through all my failures, when I looked at my last cut…and hated the way the skull looked. I thought I completely ruined the skull and there was no way back.
After collecting myself and deciding there was nothing I could do, but continue with the finish process, I moved on to the fun part: burning it! My plan was to only char the eyes, nose, and top crack. Once those areas were charred, I took a step back…and hated how it looked. There was too much contrast between the light wood of the skull and the charred details. For a second time, I thought I ruined my months of hard work.
Fortunately, my wife reminded me that charring just some details wasn’t my original plan. Originally, I planned to char the entire skull. We instead decided to lightly singe the skull to keep the charring in the details. This plan finally worked and I finally was very happy with how it looked!
Pushing Through
When you think you are failing, it can be incredibly hard to keep pushing through. However, you’ll never know if all your hard work is going to turn into something awesome, or a learning experience until you finish. With the skull, if I had stopped, I would ALWAYS wonder whether I could have finished it or not, whether I was on the right track, or whether I’m a complete failure as a power carver. However, I pushed through and kept trying to make the project work. Now, the Mythosaur Skull is one of my favorite projects I’ve ever built! I’m extremely proud of it and wouldn’t sell it for just about any money.
Now, some might argue that you should know when to call a project done. There will definitely be projects that cannot or should not be completed and they should stop. However, if you can learn from the project, identify what went wrong, and come up with a plan to correct it in the future, the project won’t have been a complete failure. Keep pushing till the project is complete, or you have learned enough about what NOT to do, and you’ll be better every time.
