Gareth Edwards gave himself a checklist to follow. So when he was unable to direct his first movie, he felt like he’d failed himself.
The Concordian published a really great article on Edwards which really delves into his career choices. Instead of wallowing in that rut of failure, he purchased a computer and began to tinker with visual effects software.
“I did lots of these silly things like animating dinosaurs and robots and putting them in my parent’s driveway,” said Edwards. “And I’d go for job interviews in London and try to get directing work, and they would watch my short films and be very unimpressed. And then suddenly these robots and dinosaurs would turn up at the end and they’d go ‘well what are these?’”
This turned out to be the key to his first first feature film, Monsters, which was the turning point in his career. Failure truly can help you succeed!