Punched in the Face

This past weekend I drew at my first all digital, live event at the Katy Home and Garden Show and I gave myself a substantial learning curve. I had planned, in my head, how drawing digitally at events were going to play out and I expected good things. It reminds me of what boxing great, Mike Tyson once said: 

"Everyone has a plan until 

they get punched in the face". 

Saturday was very much a difficult day as I had a traditional gig in Spring Branch and hurried to Katy to set up the TV, tablet, drawing table etc. and by the time I did all that, I was well spent.

As time progressed, things proceeded as many first endeavors go. I had technical issues, missing equipment, I was tentative and intimidated at using it and very slow and choppy. All in all it was not a good day.

What's worse, is I later discovered a streak across the TV screen where I may have damaged it and I was so discouraged and exasperated that I wanted to cancel my time for the following day, Sunday, and forget about the whole thing. 

Then I began thinking that I made a commitment to my vender and as leader of a local network, I had an obligation to live up to the standards of the group. How credible would it be of me to stand in front of the group and stress the importance of stepping out of our comfort zone and taking chances if I bowed out that Sunday.

So, I decided to show up and as a result, I had a better day than the previous one. I corrected mistakes from the previous day, was more aware of the intricacies of the set up and more people were pleased as I became more bold in my work. 

It's a good example of how doing something for the first time can be difficult, embarrassing and fraught with issues but as part of the self employed, it's important to accept it, learn from it, improving each time. Zig Ziglar said, 

"Anything worth doing is worth doing 

poorly until we learn to do it well".