What if it was less of a drain to fix a mistake than strive for perfection? Playing to lose means we are spending valuable energy mitigating a possible misstep, draining our creative genius and any joy in the process. Playing to win means we understand that trial and error are part of the process, however unpredictable the process proves to be.
Do not fall for the illusion that by preventing errors, you won’t have errors to fix. The truth is, the cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.
Ed Catmull,
author of Creativity Inc., president of Pixar
Imagine how boring it would be to listen to a soloist who played not to lose. This is why classical music can be boring and how to explain when it is not. Music school, like any technical training, is more than graded recitals. Obviously, passion cannot share the same space as perfection, so we prefer people, not robots, as performers. Keep this in mind: Playing to win is less of a risk than playing to lose because creative genius thrives amid the potential for failure.
