Why you should fail in public.

An interesting thought occurred to me while working this afternoon. I’ve been building in public for almost two years…maybe more. My friends, family, and audience all watch, read, and experience my explorations in building my creative business — and the triumphs and failures along the way. (intentional em-dash, just so you know.)

At first, I felt a bit embarrassed by it, namely, the failure part. Being sensitive to failure, I usually try to avoid it using one of my various coping mechanisms. The worst one is probably my inability to complete projects or jumping from interest to interest in hopes of finding “my thing”. Even when “my thing” is right in front of me.

Fun fact: my first newsletter was about this. I should probably take my own advice.

Truth be told, I am failing in public right now. Some of the things that I’ve been exploring have been failed experiments. I’ve had experiences that didn’t pan out the way I wanted them to, interests that I think should probably remain hobbies, and old habits that need to die. Clarity comes with a cost, I suppose. Yet, I continue to write; I continue to post. Why?

Social Media likes to show us the highlight reel of what is going on in others’ lives. And with the influx of AI-generated posts & influencing, the thief known as comparison will come sneaking through your window and take all of your joy while you’re staring at your screen.

Here’s the thing. I’ve come to the realization that failing in public is building in public, and as creatives, you and I should share failures more often. Failure is innately human, and we are imperfect beings. Your audience is craving more raw, human-made content than ever before. So why not show the failed experiments alongside the wins?

Failing gives us data that we can use to infer what our next actions will be. There is that old saying “you won’t know unless you try it”. Much to some of our dismay, it is 2026 and I have yet to see anyone disprove this phrase. None of us really know until we have the experience. And if you share that experience in public, you get real data back at scale. How did it feel doing the thing? Was feedback received positively…negatively? Do you want to continue doing this thing? Did you learn something from doing the thing?

That last one is the most important question. Knowledge is power. Learning from failure is a massive catalyst to our growth as creative entrepreneurs. And I don’t know about you, but I like to learn on the job and receive feedback immediately. Impatient, neurodivergent Millenial, guilty as charged.

The negative connotation that comes with the word “failure” needs to be reframed into the positive version that I like to call “building”. Essentially, that is what building in public is. Trying, experimenting, learning, growing, and repeating. That change in mindset makes this thing a whole lot easier.

For example, I recently have come to terms with not building my studio around photography full-time. It was an idea that I daydreamed about, but once I experienced a taste of what that’d be like, I quickly learned that:

It’d be easy for me to say “I failed as a photographer.” But I didn’t. I still love the craft & the art. I’m still going to shoot. The data I received simply states that making it a full-time business venture is not what I want. It also reveals more of the path of what I’m building towards.

Stay positive and reframe the F word.

Now, the other F word.

One important thing to note before I let you go back to making cool things. Don’t let a rude comment derail you. The internet is full of trolls and negative people. You are doing what many of those don’t have the cajones to do: putting yourself out there. Building in public isn’t easy, and failing in public is even harder. But I promise you, the return on investment for being an authentic human will pay off in spades.

So here I am, failing proudly in public alongside you.

If you have a recent “building” moment, I’d love to hear it.

Stay Creative, Stay Caffeinated.

Paps.