The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HVKDIX8 | Format: PDF
The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery Description
It is one of the enduring enigmas of the human experience: many of our most iconic, creative endeavors - from Nobel Prize-winning discoveries to entrepreneurial inventions and works in the arts - are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts.
The gift of failure is a riddle. Like the number zero, it will always be both a void and the start of infinite possibility. The Rise - a soulful celebration of the determination and courage of the human spirit - makes the case that many of our greatest triumphs come from understanding the importance of this mystery.
This exquisite biography of an idea is about the improbable foundations of creative human endeavor. The Rise begins with narratives about figures past and present who range from writers to entrepreneurs; Frederick Douglass, Samuel F. B. Morse, and J. K. Rowling, for example, feature alongside choreographer Paul Taylor, Nobel Prize-winning physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, Arctic explorer Ben Saunders, and psychology professor Angela Duckworth.
The Rise explores the inestimable value of often ignored ideas - the power of surrender for fortitude, the criticality of play for innovation, the propulsion of the near win on the road to mastery, and the importance of grit and creative practice. From an uncommonly insightful writer, The Rise is a true masterwork.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 6 hours and 22 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: March 4, 2014
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HVKDIX8
In Sarah Lewis’ recent publication of “The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery,” she asserts that the notion of failure is an important part of the creative process and in being a complete human being. For Lewis, being a “failure” – at least one with clear vision, process, and tenacity – gives you the drive to succeed and the springboard for true mastery. Lewis’ spectrum of knowledge and prototypes of successful “failures” in this book are not limited to fine artists. Refreshingly, her definition of creativity is broad and includes scientists, athletes, educators, and film executives. By using a variety of examples, Lewis has written a book that has the potential to strike a chord in almost anyone. Someone in this book will inspire you because they have lost just as you have. In fact, many people in this book have lost more than you ever will and have still had the “grit” to keep moving forward. In short, if failure is something we have in common, as Lewis asserts, then the ability to “rise” above it is something we have in common, as well. It is in this way that no matter where we are in our “dream” we are in the best of company.
By joy harris
In a world where many are happy to share their opinions regarding matters about which they have given little thought, Sarah Lewis has taken the time to gift us a deeply thoughtful and meticulously crafted book that chronicles with great aplomb how failure has led to some of the world's most well-regarded successes.
The impeccable research in "The Rise" and Sarah's ability to make connections between the complex and simple make the book infinitely quotable:
"We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped exactly like us," as Junot Díaz said, and it can create a blindness to failures all around. It results in the Einstellung effect: the cost of success is that it can block our ability to see when what has worked well in the past might not any longer. In the face of entrenched failure, there are limits to reason's ability to offer us a way out. Play helps to see things anew, as do safe havens. Yet the imagination inspired from an aesthetic encounter can get us to the point of surrender, giving over to a new version of ourselves."
Play, safe havens, imagination, surrender. This book is filled with no shortage stunning illuminations.
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts Sarah offers us is the distinction between "success" and "mastery":
"Mastery requires endurance. Mastery, a word we don't use often, is not the equivalent of what we might consider its cognate -- perfectionism -- an inhuman aim motivated by a concern with how others view us. Mastery is also not the same as success -- an event-based victory based on a peak point, a punctuated moment in time. Mastery is not merely a commitment to a goal, but to a curved-line, constant pursuit."
In my mind, that quote alone makes "The Rise" an instant classic that will remain one of the top three books I gift to loved ones, friends, and associates who have vision, respect the need to attend to and correct failures, and seek mastery over success.
By April Yvonne Garrett
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