“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
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So wrote Samuel Beckett in Westward Ho.
Tales of failure were in abundance yesterday when Ulumbarra hosted the Festival of Failure.
From receiving hundreds of rejections to being injured an inopportune moment, guest speakers at the festival explained that many of their failures led to success.
Echuca actor and comedian Dion Williams was the first speaker of the afternoon.
An aspiring footballer, Williams broke his ankle in three places. The injury forced him to miss out on his chance to chase a career in the AFL.
“I thought screw it, I’ll never play football again. It took me 12 weeks to come back from it,” he said.
“Once I finally come back, I started playing slowly with the kids but was laughed at.
“After months of trying to come back, I gave up and turned to acting.”
Despite a slew of failed auditions, Williams eventually landed the role of Marlon in Chris Lilley’s series Angry Boys and scored a lead role in the Nine Network’s miniseries Gallipoli.
Designer and artist Christian Wagstaff has a fondness for Bendigo.
As well as impressing crowds with art installation House of Mirrors, which he designed with Keith Courtney, his great-grandfather Captain Percy Wagstaff lived in Bendigo.
Christian was one of the speakers at yesterday’s Festival of Failure.
In year 10, Christian had successful work experience at the Victorian Opera where he did set design.
He then had 300 rejections while searching for a job before becoming a junior set designer at Channel 9. He left that job to be a waiter at Crown Casino, eventually becoming creative director.
Last year he and Courtney designed House of Mirrors.
“It was an extreme example of potential failure. It was a simple, slightly done thing but we took the plunge,” Christian said.
“We believed in it but there was doubt. It was work for school or anything like that. It was for us and we had finally landed on our feet.
“Failure is vital because it keeps you on your feet.”