The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary: “Failure Is the Way Forward”

This chapter includes three subchapters: “Failure Is the Way Forward,” “Pain Is Part of the Process,” and “The ‘Do Something’ Principle.” Manson begins this chapter with an anecdote, this time from his own life. He discusses the state of his life at an earlier era in which he had little true direction. It was 2007, the beginning of a financial catastrophe in the US, and Manson was out of work, out of a home, and sleeping on a friend’s futon. While considering his present and future options, he decided after evaluating the risk to go all-in toward an entrepreneurial career on the internet. His calculation came down to having nothing to lose.

Next, Manson relates an incident involving Pablo Picasso. The famous artist was at a café, doodling on a napkin, and when he got up to leave, a woman approached him and asked if she could have the doodle. Picasso told her it would cost her $20,000, and when the woman responded dumbfoundedly, Picasso told her that it took him over 60 years to draw such a doodle. Manson explains the point of including this anecdote—namely, that success results from a lengthy process of trial and error—including, of course, outright failure. No one just arrives at the skill of Picasso without having endured trials that force them to become better than if they hadn’t experienced difficulties. Another example that Manson uses is a child learning how to walk. The child falls countless times, but instinct drives the child to keep trying. The child isn’t concerned with failure but only in achieving the goal of learning to walk. Manson claims that we learn fear as we grow up and this fear can be debilitating. It can even prevent many from simply trying something because they think they may fail. Rather than allowing the fear of failure to cripple one’s ambitions, Manson proposes that one accept it as a natural part of growth. Success rarely, if ever, comes without some degree of failure at one point or another: “Pain is part of the process” (153), and the sooner one realizes this maxim, the more open one inherently becomes to growth. Personal growth allows for people to feel like they can face and overcome their problems in life, and this is what leads to true happiness.

Manson closes the chapter with a discussion of “The ‘Do Something’ Principle” (158). Once again, he relates to his own life experience at a time when he felt stuck. He learned that rather than waiting for motivation to just come out of nowhere and then act, he should act, and the motivation would build from action.

Chapter 7 Analysis

The title of this chapter, “Failure is the Way Forward,” is also the thesis. The chapter examines how experiencing failure is essential in achieving any kind of success. While failure doesn’t feel great when it happens, Manson points out that a success rate of 100% is impossible. Again, Manson employs a common-sense approach in the chapter so that we can inherently understand his point. Of course, failure happens and will continue to happen. Although this is a somewhat obvious truth, however, people tend to fear failure as indicative of who they are as people. It’s a concept similar to that in the previous chapter when Manson discusses the fear of being wrong. People tend to externalize failure the same way, and the rejection that comes as a result of not succeeding at a chosen task initiates this fear. In blunt terms, Manson reminds us that failure is going to happen but that it’s a “relative concept” (148), meaning that we can choose how we perceive and respond to that failure. If we see it as a devastating catastrophe, then we’re likely to do nothing but aggrandize our fear of it; if we see it as a necessary circumstance of our learning and self-growth, we can use it to our betterment.

Additionally, part of what constitutes failure to some people is coming up short and not achieving a desired goal. The converse is true with success. The tendency is that people measure success by “a long list of arbitrary achievements” (151). They miss the larger picture and the more substantive meaning of success. Achieving our goals doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll become happy. Most of the time, Manson notes, we respond to our successes by setting new goals that follow the same pattern. This often involves some kind of material gain. What happens is that we continually put ourselves in chase mode and miss the simple fact that “growth […] generates happiness” (151). When we measure our successes and failures externally, we miss the chance to reflect on both.

In concluding the chapter, Manson addresses an important motivational concept. Sometimes, our fear of something robs us of the motivation to do it. Other times, for whatever reason, the motivation to act just doesn’t pop up. Manson presents an alternate view of how we can respond when our motivation to act is inaccessible. He notes that action can lead to motivation. Rather than seeing the inverse and waiting to become motivated, we should force ourselves to act, which will bring motivation out from its hiding place, wherever the source.