30/06/2026
I've been going through a series of riffs on quotes I wrote back in the COVID era to help me (and hopefully others) cope with the stress and uncertainty of that time. It was suggested to me that the 150 or so that I wrote might work as an inspirational book.
It is certainly an interesting exercise comparing what we were dealing with then and what we are dealing with now. I don't think anyone wants to be reminded of COVID, but it did happen, and we did come out the other side.
But perhaps people might find inspiration in how we all managed, in different ways. I will finish collating and write one final riff to conclude. Here is a sample from October 17 af 18. 2020 - 15 days into the series.
‘One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake’ – Anton Chekhov.
How true. In the world of show business, which Chekhov certainly knew, judging successes from failures is so hard.
I know this only too well, having experienced both great successes and miserable failures (not necessarily in the product, but at the box office). The success rate for plays or musicals on Broadway is about one in five; the same is true for film, though I think it’s even lower. The number of projects producers have thought would be ‘sure-fire hits’ but haven’t turned out that way is countless. Similarly, we’ve heard actors say they worked on a little film and didn’t expect it to become the huge success it became.
According to an article I read in The Telegraph, Chekhov, who fled the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on the night of October 17, 1896, certainly didn’t feel “understood and accepted not only by every Russian, but by all humanity”.
Chekhov’s flight was prompted by the booing and jeering that greeted the premiere of his play, The Seagull. “The theatre breathed malice, the air was compressed with hatred,” Chekhov would write. Chekhov reacted to the hideous experience by hiding backstage for the final two acts before rushing into the St Petersburg night to wander the streets and contemplate the disaster of his rejection.
Look how successful The Seagull finally became. This was a case of an ‘artistic failure’, and I’m sure, a financial disaster too, ultimately succeeding and becoming one of the most famous plays of all time.
Just as in show business, we can experience both success and failure in everything from business to relationships. The key to this is never to give up. Some things work, but some just don’t. You may have been ahead of your time, maybe didn’t have enough capital or time to see a project through, or misunderstood how long it takes to get the word out or for the public to cotton on to something. Maybe you only saw stars when you met that person and hadn’t explored that person’s character deeply enough to realise you were mismatched.
The takeaway from all this, in my opinion, is that we all make choices, we all make mistakes, and we just need to learn from them and get back on our feet. As my dear mum used to say, ‘just get on with it’. Don’t give up on your dreams, be they artistic, business or personal.
Who hasn’t heard of Chekhov, arguably the greatest playwright of all time?
