The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of the class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: 50 kilogram of pots rated an "A", 40 kilograms a "B" and so on. Those being graded on "quality" however , needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A".

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.

It seems that while the "qauntity" group was busy churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.


It doesnt matter if your objectives are in the area of art, business, ministry, sports or relationships. The only way to get ahead is to fail early, fail often and fail forward -by learning from such failures.

Culled from Failing Forward - John C. Maxwell