I thought it was a setback, but it was actually a setup.

Have you ever been in a situation where an unexpected outcome happened and it actually turned out for the better? This has happened to me on many occasions when I’m working on a project. It’s always one of those occasions where a mistake happens and the words that come are “noooo!” then “Oh… wait! Hey, that’s not too bad”.

It’s in situations like these, where I realized that encountering mistakes or mishaps become fruitful. I’ve mentioned many times how being a perfectionist is part of me, so things going as I planned are what I strive for. Although, that’s not the case in many of my experiences. The thought that moves me forward all the time is embracing the mishaps, learning from them, and knowing that there is no need to fear failure.

It’s not easy, I can tell you that, but when you look at history, many of the great inventions that we have today were due to happy accidents, or were the products of progress. The inventors were getting knocked down, but they continued to get right back up. Did you know that special effects, like the final battle field in Avengers End Game, humans going to space and many more, came about due to an accident? George Méliès, the master of movie illusions, paved the way for our imaginations to come to life!

In 1861, when video cameras were just created, Méliès recorded in the streets of Paris and suddenly his camera jammed. After fixing the problem he began shooting again, then brought it to get developed. Upon watching the playback, he noticed that suddenly the video cut and it started showing a new scene from what he was just looking at. He realized that he could pull off illusions or special effects through editing! Today, special effects are used in many movies, tv series, video games and more!

Many great inventors started out the same way and look at where we are now. The thought of happy accidents, even though it’s a circumstance that people encounter more than once, is really comforting to me, and it proves my way of thinking that failing is a teacher. Sometimes we think it could be a setback, but it was actually a setup!