Risco:

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”

-Samuel Beckett

Visitor, are you scared of failure?

Do you avoid certain situations because of the possibility of failure or even the probability of failure? It is said far to often in this room, “I’m not good at this.” or “I’ll never get this.”

I think you are better than that. I believe one of the biggest dis-services American culture has created is the inability to accept failure. Perhaps you have heard the saying “failure is not an option.” In reality failure is not only a part of life is a part that should be encouraged. It is called learning. If you are not willing to fail how much success will you ever be able to achieve. You saw that video in orientation of the greatest greats that succeeded though failure right? What if they had encountered failure and quit.

Don’t confuse failure in attempts with failure to attempt however. You can never succeed if you don’t try, therefore try,try,try again. It’s part of our class rubric. How far are you willing to go. How hard are you willing to try to fail….and succeed. Success is not always measured upon a final product but often the journey that got you there. If you are willing to take this journey you will love design.

My modern interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s quote..”Go big or go home!”

Peyton Manning and the Broncos failed at their goal to win the SuperBowl Last year. And in fact they failed even earlier the year before. Does that mean they quit? Does that mean hope is gone? no that means they learn from their mistakes and try harder to be better this year. You never know the outcome, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try.

Basil:

This semester we have different classes working for the CIA which means different quests available to different classes. Our programming agents our in Cali. are working hard to help direct the quest to agents in certain class level but for now just keep your eyes and ears open to what quests you are encouraged to be working on. Oh and see that little green  ZERO in the top left corner. That is a new messaging system that the captain will use if he needs to notify you of things on short notice or to you individually so keep and eye on it to see if any messages are sent you way.

Liberty:

[su_get_displayname], hopefully you will wrap up Bootcamp today or tomorrow. As you do I’m guessing you will be wondering what’s next. Well first of all let me congratulate you on making it this far. Those first couple weeks can be taxing. If you are still working on it get it done so we can move on to the fun stuff.

As you may remember, I am here to grant freedom when it is earned and deserved. So if you are all finished with Bootcamp head over to the Quest Guide to see all that might await you. Feel free to do some exploring at the quest available and when you are ready consider starting a Design Quest, a Lynda Quest, or jump into Adobe Illustrator with Pre-Illustrator 101 and those that follow. More guidance and intstructions will come later. Enjoy your freedom.

DAILY UPDATE 8/28/14:

So many of you are finally wrapping up Bootcamp. Its time to design. As you may have seen there are a lot of options to work on in the Quest Guide, but I don’t have an exact path I want to follow. Only guidelines and suggestions. We definitely need to gain a strong understanding of  Adobe Illustrator and Design Knowledge before the Epics Quests will be available to you. We’re going to hold off on Photoshop for while still.

From the Quest Guide page, I would like you to choose any Quest for Adobe Illustrator or from the Design Quests List. The Illustrator quests should be from the Illustrator Quest list or one of these three Lynda.com Courses: 1 | 2 | 3  If you choose on of these use the first Lynda Quest from Quest Guide to earn Mastery and Gold for your work.

These will all be extremely valuable and in many ways even essential. I do create a suggested sequential order as they are listed in the quest sections, though you are not required to follow that sequence. Some quests will not let you in yet if you haven’t met the requirements yet so be aware of those messages. They will not penalize you they will just keep the quest locked until you qualify.