Shirley Marquez, STAR Company Bookkeeping Assistant and singer/actor, provides insight in her ongoing series on pursuing a creative career.

Ahhh, the “f” word …. Failure. It’s a delicate subject. Nobody wants to talk about it, nobody wants to admit that it happens. And yet if you are going into business, more importantly in the creative business, failure is a possibility. Why else would parents and teachers discourage their children from one day opening up their own businesses (or God forbid, pursue a career in the performing arts!). I once read somewhere that 50 percent of businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within five years. “Who wants that when you can just work in a bank or a hospital and be employed with benefits?” as my family would say.

We all know why we don’t feel good about failure. Fear. Embarrassment. Self-Doubt. … The list is endless. So here’s an idea – Why don’t we start looking at failure as a good thing? Look at it as an asset, instead of a liability. I bet all the billionaires in the world didn’t succeed the first few times they tried – they simply learned from it and accepted that failing was part of their journey …

… So how exactly can failure be considered an asset and not a liability?

First, with failure comes growth. Maybe you opened a store two years ago that closed in six months because you didn’t do enough research on the location. Now you know. Only with defeats, mistakes, and so-called failures do we only really develop knowledge and sharpened skills. We learn by trial and error. Of course, t is always easy to just give in to negative thinking. “But I saved all that money to get it started, I did this, I did that, I wasted my time and energy for what?” Well, one thing’s right – you are wasting energy by complaining instead of planning your next steps. There is no magic solution for everything – we will make mistakes. If there was a magic solution, the world will be a perfect place. So accept failure, learn from it and move on. No one succeeds by taking it easy, we succeed by taking risks.

Next, failing is not the end of the world. It may, believe it or not, be a window for another opportunity.  For example, when I was 19 I moved to Toronto to study Theatre at York University. Like any 19-year-old, I thought I had it all figured out– I was going to graduate in four years, get my theatre degree, and be on my way to becoming a theatre artist. Alas, it did not happen – I didn’t get in when I auditioned for 2^nd year Acting! I was incredibly disappointed! My plan fell through! …  Luckily, I auditioned to other schools as a back-up. Two months later, I received an acceptance letter from the National Theatre School of Canada. My plan changed, and I moved to Montreal. The lesson? Embrace failure as a part of life – you can’t avoid it. And when you do, you just might find something better.

Last but not least, I would like to quote JK Rowling in her 2008 Harvard commencement speech: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously, that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case, you fail by default.” I love this quote because this addresses the # 1 reason so many of us avoid failure: Fear. The lingering worry of, “But what if I fail?” … Well, two things can happen from experiencing failure: 1. You now have more insight of how to do things differently next time, or 2. You saw another window of opportunity to spend your talents on instead. It’s a win-win situation if you really think about it.  Nobody lies in their deathbed thinking, “Thank God I never tried being a comedian!” Dying patients, at the end of their lives, recall their regrets. Not their failures.  “I wish I had courage to  ___________.”

So if you are still worried of failing instead of taking the plunge and just going for it, I strongly encourage everyone to watch The Failure Club. It’s a webisode created by Morgan Spurlock about seven real-life Manhattanites pursuing their dreams despite significant obstacles. It’s remarkable to watch everyday people do everything in their power to pursue their dreams despite the huge possibility of failure. Trust me – these are the types of people who will not have regrets in their deathbeds.

Failure Club :  http://failureclub.org                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Why Small Businesses Fail : http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/business-failure.htm

JK Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencemen : http://vimeo.com/1711302

Creative thinking, along with a solid financial picture, fuels creative business. The latest in an ongoing series from STAR Company Bookkeeper Sue Merakian  looks at finding the time and tools to explore your own creativity.    In addition to being a financial wizard,  Sue is  also a visual artist and jewellery maker. 

TA DA!  I just finished my fourth masterpiece this month!

In my head, that is.

They emerge, full blown, from the murky depths of my right hemisphere, dazzling in their ethereal perfection. So brilliantly detailed and moving that I couldn’t possibly forget them.

Poof, there goes another one. Something in a gothic arch-shaped triptych with a carousel made out of spaghetti? No, wait. Blast! It’s gone.

T’would be so lovely if my reveries arrived whilst sitting in front my easel, paintbrush poised o’er blank canvas, but they usually show up when I’m poop scooping, or dangling off a sliding loop in a bus driven by Leadfoot Larry. Wandering around muttering daydreams into a phone recorder, or whipping out a petite journal and scribbling tiny feverish notes at inappropriate moments, seems a little affected to me. If the vision is that great, it will stick, right? Wrong. Somehow, the *feeling* of the thing is lost.

As yet, I haven’t figured out how to permanently capture one of these fleeting gifts from Morpheus, but I get some consolation from the fact that at any given time, any number of people in my vicinity could be experiencing their own instant masterpiece…TA DA!

STAR Company is a left and right brain phenomenon …In addition to our socially-minded financial management, and all things bookkeeping, we also produce unique art and culture events.  As part of our ‘Sparking Your Own Creativity’ series, STAR Company bookkeeper Armen Karapetyan muses on his connection to photography.

Moments preserved in time…

Toronto is smack in the middle of the 16th annual CONTACT Photography Festival, a  manifestation of human creativity and beautiful moments preserved in time.

I got my first serious, professional camera when I was visiting the great New York City for the first time.  In a city like New York, you have to have a camera.  First of all, it’s a visible sign on your chest screaming “I am a tourist”!  There I am, one of many thousands visiting the Big Apple daily and successfully annoying the hell out of locals with over-the-top excitement and a slow walking pace, especially when it happens during rush hour. For me, the camera and the pictures I took during my travels serve as a portal in the space-time continuum.

I have traveled a lot since my initial trip to New YorkCity.  I am happy that I managed to create many memorable moments, along with some artistic expression, with the helpof my reliable companion, my camera.

Every year over 1000 local, national and international artists get together during the annual CONTACT  Photography Festival in Toronto. CONTACT is the largest photography event in the world. Quite something, especially when you consider the consistent whittling away at art and culture funding in Canada over the past several years. The festival is exhibited in 200 venues during the month of May and  attracts over 1.8million viewers!

You just might catch some CONTACT photographers exhibiting in our upcoming CSI Art Lounge.  The STAR Company office is in the Centre for Social Innovation-Annex.  We are partnering with CSI to launch the CSI Art Lounge in the fall of 2012..stay tuned!

Our own Sue Merakian, a STAR Company Bookkeeper & Administrator, muses on making time and space in your own life to revel in your creative spirit.

As an early birthday present, my mom recently sent me a cornucopia of professional-grade water colour supplies; sheaves of heavy, soft paper, tiny tubes in myriad hues, and oh the brushes…from big fluffies to the tiniest spotters, and everything in between. Masking fluid and special erasers. A huge white tray waiting for pools of potential.

I was in eleventh heaven. I couldn’t get to them for a couple of weeks, but finally I had a whole day to devote to the exploration of the new medium. Most of my dabbling has been in oils; and though I love how easily they blend and the multidimensional possibilities of palette knife (and fingers), they don’t lend themselves to spur-of-the-moment creativity, or quick clean ups. How great is this, I thought, grabbing a simple jar of water and some paper towels.

Very quickly I discovered that these innocent pastel washes were possessed of some malign spirit. They dripped. They splattered. They oozed outside the lines. The paper pilled, swelled, and warped. The brushes kept dipping themselves in my coffee cup instead of the water jar. An hour later I was feeling more than a little frustrated. Clearly, a new approach was required. I decided to stop striving for a masterpiece, and start experimenting. Sheets of paper fell off table and piled up like damp leaves at my feet. Four hours went by in about a minute. It turns out that painting with water colours is all about turning rude surprises into I-meant-to-do-that. It forced me outside my artistic comfort zone, and to lose my perfection frame. Oh yes, some of the paintings were truly scoff-worthy. But three of them were amazing (if I do say so myself). The best part was how completely different these pieces were than anything I’d ever done before.

Like most people, I try to avoid looking foolish or incompetent. But I’m starting to wonder how much that protective instinct has limited not just my creativity, but all areas of my life. It is said that we should do one thing that scares us every day…

…tomorrow I’m going to make a pie crust.

Our own Sarah Hopen has been invited to present her smart, useful and inspiring workshop…

‘The Creative Entrepreneur: Making it Work’,  at next week’s Small Business Arts Forum.

The workshop is part of a one day conference presented by Enterprise Toronto.  Sarah’s workshop explores key challenges for creative entrepreneurs and the important questions you need to ask yourself as a business owner.

We attended the event last year and it turned out to be a great opportunity for networking and brainstorming with other creative types.  It’s all free and it’s jammed with workshops and seminars all geared to artists and creative business.

This year’s keynote speaker is iconic contemporary Canadian painter Charles Pachter.

The Enterprise Toronto: Small Business Arts Forum happens Tuesday April 24, 9am-4pm at the North York Civic Centre.  We hope to see you there!

Sustainable Creativity – Tools and Tactics for Personal Resilience and Financial Clarity

Presented by STAR Company CEO Sarah Hopen & Career Coach Anne Carbert

Two group workshops and two one-on-one finance / personal vision sessions. Sarah joins forces with Anne Carbert, Career and Transition Counsellor to help you manage your financial demons while offering a strong dose of inspiration that taps into your strengths and rekindles an energizing business vision.

As an artist or creative entrepreneur, it can be easy to lose sight of your original intention and feel overwhelmed by financial worries. Do you know your financial goals for your business? Have a good sense of your growth prospects? Remember why you started this crazy business in the first place? Some concrete financial planning will help and it’s not as daunting as you think.

Saturday April 14 & May 5, 2:30 – 4:30pm

At the Centre for Social Innovation – Annex

Below is the latest contribution from STAR Company’s Sue Merakian to her blog exploring how to manage a creative life…..

To my mind, winter is just about the worst time to start a new year. How about May 1^st, when everything is fresh hope and renewal? Or my personal favourite, September 1^st – when the cool air and bright colours of autumn return, that’s when I’m really firing on all cylinders!

But after December’s revelries, with tummy well-stuffed and the days short and cold, I so wish the dark months of January and February could be allocated to human hibernation. I’m jealous of the toads sleeping in their ice-crystal lairs, the moles piled up warm and safe in their wee cubbies, and the bears snug in their dens, oblivious to the wind howling outside.

Ahhhh.....hibernation.

So barring a four month-long nap, I’ve been thinking about how to make the best of winter. Is there anything about this time of year that might actually be a boon to creativity? Well, for one thing it’s quieter at this time of year. Most of my family and friends have had enough socializing for a bit and are more than happy to cocoon this period, giving everyone a little more time and space for their muses. From an inspirational standpoint, winter with it’s high-contrast, monochromatic palette is reflected as a cleaner, more graphic edge in my creative endeavors. And finally, I’ve discovered that the winter is a great time for Planning. At this time of year, it’s kind of hard to avoid thinking about the successes and failures of the previous year, or ways to improve in the coming year.

 In my last post, I mentioned that applying business skills to my creativity is fairly counter-intuitive for me. But even I can see a big crossover opportunity when it comes to planning. Years ago, I learned the S.M.A.R.T. method of setting business objectives: an effective goal statement is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-phased. Using this standard to define my creative objectives is helping me to not only clearly identify what I want to achieve, but to pinpoint and schedule the resources I’ll need to reach those targets.

Most importantly, good planning frees me from worrying about yesterdays and tomorrows, and lets me focus on making the most of each day – my resolution for this year.

A joyful and fulfilling winter to you!

There are two great things about fall:

1.  Buying back to school shoes

2.  Planning the next STARRY Nights season

STARRY Nights

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, STARRY Nights is a house concert series produced by STAR company.  It is an opportunity for emerging artists, established artists looking to present a new piece of work or explore a new discipline, or anyone looking to present their creative work in an intimate, supportive setting.

We are going into our third season and have enjoyed two years of a wide range of incredible performers…visit our facebook page for some of the pictures of past shows.

So now it’s time to put out the call and see who is interested for 2012!  We are open to anything and everything, from zucchini juggling to Spanish poetry.  One we receive the submissions, we will curate a series that is eclectic, interesting and engaging.

 Are you interested in performing or presenting your work?  Fabulous!  Here are some things to know.

• STARRY Nights take place in the living/dining room of STAR Company founder Sarah Hopen’s downtown Toronto home, which can hold a maximum audience of about 25 people (depending on the space demands of the performance.)   There is a  small upright piano, basic lighting and lots of ambiance!
• Performances take place on a Saturday evening, between January and June (but not including February – it’s tax season you know) with doors opening at 8pm and performances starting at 8:30pm
• Half of the money from the ticket sales goes to the performer. The other half goes to covering costs (snacks, beverages, etc) with the remaining funds passed along to an arts organization of our choosing.
• STAR Company will prepare the online invitation, manage the ticket sales and host the evening.  We love producing this series and try to make it as supportive, relaxing and fun for the artist as we can.
• As the performer, your commitment is to spread the word among your community and promote ticket sales.  A full house is nice for performer and audience!  While there will be some tickets sold through the STAR Company contact list, it’s the performer’s job to bring in the audience.

There are always more details to work out for each performance, but those are the basics.

If you are interested, please send an email by October 31st to starrynights@starcompany.ca indicating

• your name
• your performance idea
• your requirements
• your preferred month of performance

Of course, feel free to e-mail us with questions and check out the website (www.starcompany.ca) for more info about past performances.

And now back to shoe shopping……

A favorite topic of conversation when I’m walking down the street with my daughters?

“What would it be like if there were no cars on the streets?”

Here’s what we’ve imagined:

Cleaner.  Greener.  Quieter.  Prettier.  Softer. More fun.  (Actually they say “funner” but I feel compelled to edit!)

It’s a lovely picture – a world less relient on gas, with a greater number of healthy, active citizens and more green space.

For me biking equals freedom. From cars. From TTC headaches. From gas. From pollution. From stress. From sitting on my butt.

And it’s fun!

I love biking through the city and being in touch with the sights, sounds, and smells of each neighborhood.  The clatter of dishes and dinner smells of Parkdale at 6pm.  The quiet lushness of Dufferin Grove at 8:30 am.  The zip home along hard core Bloor at 2pm in the afternoon.  I can interact with the people, the parks, the sculptures on the West Toronto Railpath and the potholes on Dundas (although they are getting better)

As an artist and art supporter I value connection and creativity.  Biking feeds it all.

My wish?

That it was safer. And easier. And that there were more bikers. ‘Cause everybody knows there’s safety in numbers.

Here is my plea for action…

The Toronto Cyclists Union is looking for more members.  If you are a serious biker, sometimes biker or never-gonna-touch-a-bike-but-support-the-concept kind of person, I encourage you to back the work of the good folks at Toronto Cyclists Union.  Their work is to advocate for a safer, integrated cycling network in Toronto.

Check out my snazzy page for the  ”Refer-a-friend“ campaign for more details on how to join, what the Union is all about and what’s in it for you.

See you on the road.