Aubade #5 – The Aesthetics of Failure

Lately, I’ve been thinking: maybe success is the most boring thing in the world?

Imagine a movie where the main hero has no problems. He’s strong, beautiful, and smart from the very beginning. Everyone helps him, he faces no obstacles, and in the end, he defeats evil with a single swipe. You’d walk out of that theater in 15 minutes because it’s uninteresting and unrealistic.

Real, great stories are born from failure. We love the hero who lost his shoe on the way, whose sword broke, who was betrayed by a friend, and was almost eaten by a monster. We love the struggle, the resistance, the chaos. That’s precisely what makes the story real.

Look at nature. The engine of evolution is not perfection, but the random “mistake,” the mutation. It’s this “failed” copy that creates diversity and progress.

In art, beauty is often found in asymmetry and imperfection. In Japanese aesthetics, there is the concept of “Wabi-sabi” – finding beauty in imperfect, transient, and modest things.

History is full of brilliant “failures”:

• Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin from a contaminated, neglected dish in his lab. His “failure” in hygiene became one of humanity’s greatest successes.
• Van Gogh couldn’t sell a single painting in his lifetime. By the standards of his time, he was an absolute “loser.” Today, his “failed” life is the greatest legend in art history.
• The “Apollo 13” space mission was a catastrophic failure. But it was precisely this failure, this crisis, that demonstrated the highest level of human genius, courage, and improvisation. We remember “Apollo 13” not as a failure, but as a triumph.

Failure is a “glitch in the matrix.” It’s the moment when the world’s ideal, programmed script is broken and something real, chaotic, and alive breaks in. It is proof that we are not just robots.

So, let’s change our attitude. Let’s stop fearing failure and start appreciating it as our greatest teacher.

Lately, when something doesn’t work out for me, I don’t get angry; on the contrary, I fill up with some strange, masochistic pleasure. I rest a bit, pull air into my lungs, then brutally sigh, “Fuck you,” and start carving another path toward the destination.

So…

• No one understands your idea? Great! It means you’re ahead of your time.
• Your project is in crisis? No problem! You probably tried something no one has tried before.
• You got your heart broken? Perfect! It means you have the ability to feel something real.

So, my friends, don’t be afraid of failure. Love it. Turn it into your superpower. Be those artists, scientists, and dreamers who “get no luck.”

Our stories are far more interesting.