In Wayne’s World 2 – stay with me – Wayne is visited by the spirit of Jim Morrison and told to stage a concert in Aurora. Wayne wisely asks, “How will I get the bands to come?” To which Jim responds, “If you book them…they will come.”

This line is parodied from Kevin Costner’s baseball drama Field of Dreams. I’m using it because Wayne’s World is a more fun reference and because it’s also how people often think of creativity: “If I have the one idea – a singular great vision that could change everything – they will come.” Commissioners, collaborators and audiences will come.

The unfavourable result of following that belief: Aerosmith only show up in Wayne and Garth’s ‘happy ending’ version of the story following a very unhappy reality.

Creativity is, and always will be, a numbers game. This applies to finding the career-defining ‘hit’ and getting the idea commissioned.

Quality or quantity?

Finding the ‘hit’
Less than a dozen of Emily Dickinson’s nearly 1,800 poems were published while she was alive. She is now regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. The majority of Picasso’s 20,000 works went unnoticed during his lifetime, but they led to "Guernica" and "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." For something more modern, YouTube megastar Mr Beast has 215 million subscribers today. He started his channel in 2012 but only had a ‘hit’ after five years of garnering very little attention with, believe it or not, the "Counting to 100,000" video.

Getting the idea commissioned
Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” was rejected by 38 publishers before it was finally accepted. It then won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into one of the most famous films in Hollywood history. As an example of a familiar story in startups today, the co-founders of online design platform Canva had more than 100 rejections from investors over three years before securing financing. It now has $1 billion in annual revenue and Bob Iger as an advisor.

Every time someone has told us “quality over quantity”, we have been misled. Volume is the predominant factor in determining creative success. Number of attempts is directly proportional to accomplishment, and rejection is the norm, not the exception.

Why are we in a numbers game?

Take a moment to remind ourselves of four reasons why creative pursuit is so determined by numbers.

1. Subjectivity: There is no universal taste, no infallible decision-making. What one publisher, producer or investor might reject, another may see something urgent and groundbreaking. Regardless of the market you are in, the chance of finding that one ‘yes’ the first time, given how many commissioners there are and how many people are vying for their attention, is slim.
2. The role of luck: Point to any creative person at the top of their game, and you will point to someone who, at least once, was in the right place with the right idea. Creativity has always had a casual affair with the role of luck, but what we don’t hear enough is that creative success is a matter of statistical probability. More attempts = more chance of luck.
3. Market trends and timing: If you are pursuing something original, the idea might be ahead of its time or not fit the current market demands. This will lead to unengaged audiences and rejections from the risk-averse right up until the moment when alignment occurs. ‘Not now’ doesn’t mean ‘not ever’.
4. Skill development: The most obvious of the four. Work of quality is not immediate; it’s continuous exploration and refinement of skill. Each project, no matter how small, contributes to finding what you excel at more naturally and reaching a desired standard. Early efforts, although often missing the mark, are catalysing events.

This is all easy to forget

Denying the numbers game is easy. It goes against the romantic view of creativity; someone exercising freedom of expression whose works will be discovered through their intrinsic quality alone.

Forget the romantic. Focus on the pragmatic. We should be highly alert to experiencing any of the following that deter us from quantity.

1. Overconfidence in our ideas: We have sat with our ideas for months, maybe years, and in that time, identified hundreds of details which we believe make the idea worthy of mass attention. At first glance, our audience knows nothing of these details, and we routinely underestimate whether or not people will see what we see.
2. Availability bias: We are more influenced by information that is readily available – in this case, famous stories of sudden and meteoric success – than by what is most common. The media sensationalises stories of what appear to be overnight successes because they are more dramatic and appealing.
3. Glass ego: The thought of facing multiple rejections for something we care about is profoundly unpleasant. We prefer to say, “…they will come”, rather than confront the repeated, albeit momentary, damage to our ego that’s necessary to find success.

This is a good thing

Creativity is work. That work can be brutal — the idea you love that audiences didn’t connect with or the “no’s” on the path towards getting the idea made. It’s enough to dissuade anyone, irrespective of their talent.

We don’t want that.

We want ideas made from as diverse a group of people as possible and for those ideas to be as wild as possible to shake the industry from slumber or myopia. We want people to continue the pursuit not just despite this brutal side of creativity but to be better for it.

So instead, look at the reality of the need to play the numbers game and say, “This is a good thing.” Here’s why:

• It takes the pressure off thinking the idea in front of you right now has to be perfect. It doesn’t. Just take it as far as you can. Then start the next one. You are more than one idea.
• It increases the opportunity to learn. Every “no” is input, even if it's indirect. The “no” gifts the idea with a way for it to be sharpened into something more impressive.
• It builds your network. Every encounter is a new connection, and each pitch is a chance to gain exposure. These people, unless they’re assholes, will admire the attempt and be rooting for you to win down the line.
• It encourages a position of readiness. If the commissioner doesn’t like that particular idea but likes you and your style, playing the numbers game will mean you have another idea ready to go, which might be exactly what they are looking for.

Don’t listen to the spirit of Jim Morrison.

Don’t rely on the fantasy ‘happy ending’ version of the story.

Learn to love the numbers game.

Ian