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October 2009 
The genius behind fraud and failure
Posted on Apr 16th, 2008
by 
Amazume
Amazume
Last night, I watched Charlie Rose interviewing Mikhail Baryshnikow, who said about himself: "I am probably the biggest fraud that ever lived". Charlie Rose asked him how he could see himself as such. MB replied: "Aren't we all?" "Artists are all a bit of a fraud, because we are challenging sometimes the unknown, and foolishly sometimes. We fail MOST of the time."
As someone who practices the art of living, perhaps one can take to heart that each failure is a step closer to a stroke of genius. Anyone who has ever seen MB dance, has seen his inner genius shine through, and anyone who acknowledges this may accept the fact that somewhere deep within, this genius is alive and well in each of us. In order to get to this level, we MUST fail a lot, and thus are all frauds with a stroke of genius.
This may be a healthy perspective to keep in mind.
In Loving Light,
Nell ;-)
As someone who practices the art of living, perhaps one can take to heart that each failure is a step closer to a stroke of genius. Anyone who has ever seen MB dance, has seen his inner genius shine through, and anyone who acknowledges this may accept the fact that somewhere deep within, this genius is alive and well in each of us. In order to get to this level, we MUST fail a lot, and thus are all frauds with a stroke of genius.
This may be a healthy perspective to keep in mind.
In Loving Light,
Nell ;-)
Access: Public
Hmm, I like that. So the trick is to acknowledge the fraud within (so to speak) and move on from there. How many of us try hard to hide the fraud, or we just plain give up at the slightest sign of failure, saying “I'm hopeless, why even try? who am I kidding?”
Glad you posted this, Nell.
Hi Rudyan!
So nice to reconnect with you here!
If you ever are around young children you can see how they deal with failure. They either walk away and try something else, or they do it over and over again, and again! It may be worthwhile for those of us who have a hard time with failure to reconnect with our inner child, and as you say then “acknowledge” (the failure) “and move on from there.”
An effective way to work with my inner child has been to put 'little Nell' on my grown up lap lovingly, tell her: “All is well, and thank you for letting your inner light shine. Keep it up, little one.” It works, especially at times when rigid grown up methods need to be unlearned. I notice accessibility to other children of all ages, perhaps an added bonus for doing this work.
Thanks Rudyan for inspiring these ponderings ;-)
As we get bigger, taller, stronger, the harder it is for us to fall or fail. There's alot more at stake as it's alot farther to the ground when we fall as adults and we have bigger egos to shelter when we fail! I think I'll pass on learning to ice skate, bungee jump, or snow board. As an adult I want to protect my fragile bones!
I've found that I need to be kind to my beat up ego, pulling it up onto my lap and letting it know that all is well, it's okay to fail because we're one step closer to that stroke of genius. That way my ego can become smaller and hopefully the failures won't be so stressful. A tall ego falls pretty hard!
amber
Amazing Amber,
This morning I thought of you and here you are. Love your perspective ;-). Btw, brittle bones at your age are unnecessary. Nutrition and exercise can keep your bones stronger longer, and even restore them. Perhaps its time to write about that in the Great News Show pod.
Boogie boarding in the snow btw is lots of fun too. Just watch out for those trees that just won't move out of the way. Ask my son Max, who had a slapstick moment last winter learing that lesson, and a nice little egg on his forehead. Some mom I was at the time, I couldn't help but be in stiches, and thankfully Max was a great sport and laughed right along with us onlookers. Another great advantage of booboo's in the snow is that snow itself makes for a fluffy and lovely icepack, which positively impacted the size of that egg.
;-)
good post Nell,
thank you..
It's about our relationship with failure
and if we can just embrace ourselves with compassion and love
while experiencing the” feelings.” Just being with failure at a cellular level, identifying where we “hold ” failure in our bodies.. (for me, my throat chakra), intercepting any negativity towards the self with Metta, and Oh yes, Breathing.
just breathing.
breathing in compassion and forgiveness
and breathing out love..
Om Shanti Nell, on the day the Earth smiled because of our kind attention..
tess
How very true, Nell! Failures, mistakes should not be periods, but commas. Every failure has to egg us on. I watched the film “A Pursuit of Happiness” last night with my son and Chris Anderson, as portrayed by Will Smith, kept on going, failure after failure, until in the end he finally 'triumphed.'
Hello dear Tess! Thank you for your words of wisdom. How profound. Of course I just had to google 'meaning of Metta' even though it immediately resonated with the energy of loving kindness. So nice to find it confirmed here:
“What is the Meaning of Metta?
“May you be at peace. May your heart remain open. May you awaken to the light of your own true nature. May you be healed. May you be a source of healing to all beings.”
The Metta of the Buddha
“Metta means lovingkindness. In metta the heart opens unconditionally, encompassing all that is, with acceptance, awareness, and good will. The word 'metta' is from Pali, the language of the earliest Buddhist texts. Metta is universal, finding expression in all religions and societies.”… … definition courtesy of the Metta Foundation.”
Marvelous Mila,
Thanks so much for the insight you share. I am going to use this wisdom: “Failures, mistakes are comma's - not periods”. Talk about truth! Now I'm inspired to pick up that movie too and watch it with my husband and oldest son.