edison and apple
Lewis
It has been said that Edison had to try 10,000 failures before he was ultimately able to develop and master the light bulb. Whether that number is hyperbole or not, what he is quoted as saying is that "these were not failures. Each brought me one step closer to success." I hate failure. A lot. So much so, that I pull 90% or higher wins when I try to do something. What does that mean? Yep. You guessed it. Going only where it's safe. Blech. How did I turn this into a win?
Turn the "way back" meter to the year 2007 and young Lewis and his partner are shopping a female action sci-fi television franchise called "Omega 1" to the networks. Not getting a lot of traction. Getting a lot of, "sounds interesting," and "thanks for coming" responses. But not any, "let's set up a second meeting" responses. Perhaps it was because "Pain Killer Jane," "The Bionic Woman," and "Sarah Connor Chronicles" were tanking. No studio would touch our sexy and engaging franchise, and we were heartily stumped. So stumped, in fact, that we shelved our dear girl for 18 months. One day, we got the bright idea to turn the thing into a comic book. Great idea! We searched hi and low and found an artist from Arizona...who promptly wasted 9 months of our time with lip service. We then found another artist who burned us for $500 and gave nothing useable. How many failures do we have to go before 10,000?
Finally we found a wonderful artist from the Philippines who is fast, creative and excellent. He's, of course, a complete diva, and I had to bring him back to the project several times because of his "hurt feelings," but the results have been incredible. Nice. Now set your "way back" meter to March of this year. We get zero traction trying to get distributors to take our comic book. Networks are still not interested. However, one of our old friends is an Apple Mobile Network "App" developer. After seeing the comic, he gets excited about making a comic App for the iPod/iPhone/iPad. I say, "great! We'll call them Appisodes!!" He says, "but it needs to be something that's never been done before, because there's 10,000 comic book Apps out. It needs to be a "motion comic." Having never done anything like turning a flat 2-D comic book into animated life, I set about reinventing the digital wheel. Fortunately, and with a good deal of support from my team, I completed the project. I actually discovered that I loved working in the medium of motion comics. Investors, partner and app designer are thrilled.
In September of 2010, we were ready to launch...and Apple made a large update to their system that forced us to go back to the drawing board because of the "cutting edge" code manipulations we're using to deliver movie AND commentary multimedia. Moreover, someone else comes out with a "motion comic" on the Apple Network. Not as slick, not as interactive, and basically not as good, but it becomes clear that I must go back into our comic-movie and recut it. Add to this bad blood regarding renegotiating the contract between the App designer, and a recipe for disaster was almost ready to come out of the oven. I think I was at about 387 failures by then. The App designer, my partner and I set up a meeting. The tone of it wasn't going to be pretty. The only thing that kept me going was the love I had for the project, and how much I enjoyed working on it. There was no money, no glory, and lots of hassle.
It was at this meeting, which I thought was going to be a "completion" meeting that I realized I could use the techniques we use in our teams to bring order back into our development process. I allowed our developer to "clear his list" with myself and my female partner. I, similarly, cleared my lists with him. Surprisingly, about 30 minutes later, we were both excitedly joking about the porn star friends in my facebook profile and planning how the app would be even better than it was. With our new direction and reborn communication, we were able to finish the App with excellence. Apple has since approved the iPod/iPhone version both the free and paid apps ($.99) and the iPad App is forthcoming. Although the Public Relations aspect of the App have yet to be rolled out, we're getting fantastic responses from the App...and we're terribly proud of it. Yeah. Because of clearing lists.
I want to stress how close it all came to falling apart due to uncleared lists. How important it is to look at the bigger picture when failure number 438 arrives. How critical it is find what you love about what you're doing and amplify that when nothing else seems to be working. Just imagine what life would be like without the electric light bulb. Imagine what life would be like if you don't keep in action to achieve your next failure. What if your failures are as critical to the world as Edison's were? What if you're that important?
If you'd like to check out "Omega 1:Issue 1" on the Apple Network (and have an Apple mobile device), and see the newest way to read comics, go to the iTunes store by clicking on this link.
To check out the physical comics (actual books) go to this link at Indy Planet comics by clicking on this link.
- Lewis
Turn the "way back" meter to the year 2007 and young Lewis and his partner are shopping a female action sci-fi television franchise called "Omega 1" to the networks. Not getting a lot of traction. Getting a lot of, "sounds interesting," and "thanks for coming" responses. But not any, "let's set up a second meeting" responses. Perhaps it was because "Pain Killer Jane," "The Bionic Woman," and "Sarah Connor Chronicles" were tanking. No studio would touch our sexy and engaging franchise, and we were heartily stumped. So stumped, in fact, that we shelved our dear girl for 18 months. One day, we got the bright idea to turn the thing into a comic book. Great idea! We searched hi and low and found an artist from Arizona...who promptly wasted 9 months of our time with lip service. We then found another artist who burned us for $500 and gave nothing useable. How many failures do we have to go before 10,000?
Finally we found a wonderful artist from the Philippines who is fast, creative and excellent. He's, of course, a complete diva, and I had to bring him back to the project several times because of his "hurt feelings," but the results have been incredible. Nice. Now set your "way back" meter to March of this year. We get zero traction trying to get distributors to take our comic book. Networks are still not interested. However, one of our old friends is an Apple Mobile Network "App" developer. After seeing the comic, he gets excited about making a comic App for the iPod/iPhone/iPad. I say, "great! We'll call them Appisodes!!" He says, "but it needs to be something that's never been done before, because there's 10,000 comic book Apps out. It needs to be a "motion comic." Having never done anything like turning a flat 2-D comic book into animated life, I set about reinventing the digital wheel. Fortunately, and with a good deal of support from my team, I completed the project. I actually discovered that I loved working in the medium of motion comics. Investors, partner and app designer are thrilled.
In September of 2010, we were ready to launch...and Apple made a large update to their system that forced us to go back to the drawing board because of the "cutting edge" code manipulations we're using to deliver movie AND commentary multimedia. Moreover, someone else comes out with a "motion comic" on the Apple Network. Not as slick, not as interactive, and basically not as good, but it becomes clear that I must go back into our comic-movie and recut it. Add to this bad blood regarding renegotiating the contract between the App designer, and a recipe for disaster was almost ready to come out of the oven. I think I was at about 387 failures by then. The App designer, my partner and I set up a meeting. The tone of it wasn't going to be pretty. The only thing that kept me going was the love I had for the project, and how much I enjoyed working on it. There was no money, no glory, and lots of hassle.
It was at this meeting, which I thought was going to be a "completion" meeting that I realized I could use the techniques we use in our teams to bring order back into our development process. I allowed our developer to "clear his list" with myself and my female partner. I, similarly, cleared my lists with him. Surprisingly, about 30 minutes later, we were both excitedly joking about the porn star friends in my facebook profile and planning how the app would be even better than it was. With our new direction and reborn communication, we were able to finish the App with excellence. Apple has since approved the iPod/iPhone version both the free and paid apps ($.99) and the iPad App is forthcoming. Although the Public Relations aspect of the App have yet to be rolled out, we're getting fantastic responses from the App...and we're terribly proud of it. Yeah. Because of clearing lists.
I want to stress how close it all came to falling apart due to uncleared lists. How important it is to look at the bigger picture when failure number 438 arrives. How critical it is find what you love about what you're doing and amplify that when nothing else seems to be working. Just imagine what life would be like without the electric light bulb. Imagine what life would be like if you don't keep in action to achieve your next failure. What if your failures are as critical to the world as Edison's were? What if you're that important?
If you'd like to check out "Omega 1:Issue 1" on the Apple Network (and have an Apple mobile device), and see the newest way to read comics, go to the iTunes store by clicking on this link.
To check out the physical comics (actual books) go to this link at Indy Planet comics by clicking on this link.
- Lewis
