This quote from Andy Weir's novel The Martian and film featuring Matt Damon closes out the week of failure on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights. Honestly, I feel like we are just getting started. At this point, I have assembled several dozen quotes and slides about the importance of learning from failure. I am already working on a whole new session and whole day workshop on the subject. I think that there are so many quotes about failure because it is something that we all experience. Yet, it is a bit puzzling to me why so many struggle and avoid it. Instead let's embrace this universal experience and keep moving forward to go on to make bigger and better mistakes. I think that is what we call learning. 

You don't become one of the most successful authors without having failures. If you are J. K. Rowling, then you have more than a lifetime of them. In today's Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights post, J. K. Rowling advises us that failures are part of a life well lived and perhaps if we are not failing we are not truly living. 

Today on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights we continue exploring failure by visiting the land of "happy little trees" with this quote from Bob Ross. There is something utterly fascinating about Bob Ross. I want to look away, but I find myself sucked into the vortex and transported to some sort of magical land filled with goodness and the belief that I can do just about anything. 

We continue this week's theme of FAILURE on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights with this quote from Thomas Alva Edison. Most likely, you have heard Edison's famous quote "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." While this would fit well with this week's theme, I like this quote better because it emphasizes the importance of having negative results or failures as part of the creative process. Surely along the way to his 1,083 U.S. Patents, Edison had tens of thousands of failures. I submit to you The Epic Failure of Thomas Edison's Talking Doll. 

​While we often hear that failure is a "necessary evil", Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation and former President of Walt Disney Animation Studios advises us otherwise. In Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, Catmull suggests that failure is a necessary consequence of doing something that is new. It is important to remember that the first time we try to do something that we are rarely successful. 

This week on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights, take on the theme of failure with five new slides. This quote from Ed Catmull has long been a favorite of mine, and is probably the most photographed slide of any that I have ever used. This is an updated version that uses Avenir Next in various weights. ENJOY! 

We conclude this week's theme of Task Commitment on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights with Julie Andrews discussing perseverance. Demonstrating task commitment is about continuing in the face of failure time and time again. 

Look for blank space to use as the canvas for your text. Here I made use of the area above and to the left of Maria Von Trapp.   

We continue with Task Commitment as a theme on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights with this one from Marie Curie, one of only four people to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes. Life is hard, but it is up to us to persevere and stay committed to the task. I intentionally left off Marie Curie's name here. I think that it increases the sense of wonder of who she is. If you share this with you students they might not recognize her. I love the sense of longing in her eyes. Try asking your students what they think is going on in her mind. 

This is the Book Antiqua font with a drop shadow. Be sure to play with spacing to think about the rhythm when reading. This also give you the opportunity to emphasize certain key words. 

We continue this week's theme of Task Commitment on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights with Joe Renzulli's definition of the term from his Three Ring Conception of Giftedness. 

We interrupt this week's theme of Task Commitment on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights, to mourn the loss of legendary opera sensation Jessye Norman with a quote about rights, responsibilities, and talent development. 

This week on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights, we transition from creativity to the importance of task commitment with a quote from President of Disney Animation Studios and co-creator of PIXAR, Ed Catmull.