By Mona Sharif

JUMP ON THE TRAMPOLINE

One of the first things we got told at SCA is that we have to embrace rejection, because we have to get used to seeing our ideas – our “babies” – killed every day. 

After brainstorming a bunch of ideas with my teammate, we asked one of our mentors his opinion and he explained to us that none of them was good enough. 

I found it surprisingly easy to get told that our beloved ideas were actually not working with the brief and that we have to forget them. However, the hardest part came just after this rejection: start again and find other ideas, better ideas than all the ones we had to begin with. 

I’ve never been good at asking for help or for feedback. I like to do things by myself, work hard and learn alone, and now I realize it might be just because I’ve always been a bit afraid of asking for feedback, like that would be an admission that I wasn’t strong enough on my own. If you’re like me, let’s make a pact to stop acting this way because it’s stupid and will probably make us waste a lot of time. 

To me it seems like the best way is to build some resilience, and ask others for more feedback and insight.

We have to learn to see criticism as a trampoline that we just need to jump on because it’s the best way to help us have new ideas and not focus on our initial ideas. Feedback allows us to go further and start again. Make sure you’re in a playful child state, give yourself a head start, do a long running jump and bounce until you’re blue in the face. 

As Paul Arden said, “Don’t seek praise, seek criticism.” 

Try to see the brief with new eyes, from another perspective. 

P.S. There’s great advice on a great website with a great newsletter and a great shop: go there. goodfuckingdesignadvice.com