"Art happens when you work millions of hours not to make it look hard
but to make it look effortless," says famed World Trade Center high-wire
walker Philippe Petit. Read on for more insight that applies to
entrepreneurs as well as daredevils.
In 1974, Philippe Petit
committed the “artistic crime of the century” when he wire-walked
across the void between the two world trade center towers. Since then,
Petit has gone on to perform many other spectacular wire walks, authored
over half a dozen books and singlehandedly built a barn using
eighteenth-century tools and design. But, for all of his meticulous
preparation, Petit bristles at any attempt to systematize his methods.
Asked to explain his artistic process, he says, “It can be boiled down
to a few words--from chaos to total control to perfection.”
We found Petit’s philosophy of how he lives his entire life as if he’s on the high wire could be applied to anyone’s work or personal life.
2. Banish doubt. To walk the wire, I must be fearless. I must be in total control. I cannot take the first step if I’m not sure that the last step will be a success. When incidents occur on the wire that are very dangerous, let’s say a problem with the rigging, I can’t let myself fall prey to doubt. Fear will invite losing all your strength. You need faith in yourself, faith in the wire and the millions of hours of rehearsing. Sometimes, strangely, fear comes after the walk, when I look back and think, “Oh my god I did that? In those conditions? I am crazy.”
3. Make the gods your accomplices. I am not a religious man in the way the term is normally used, but when I walk on a wire I have subliminal, invisible encounters with the god of the void, the god of the balancing pole, the god of the cable. If I drop my balancing pole, I won’t be able to balance. I’ll be killed. I have to hang on to the balancing pole and negotiate with its mood, so it will never, never leave my hands. If you rise up to be higher than a god and condescend you will fail. When I walked the World Trade Center, I spoke to the swaying gods of the Towers, “Let me go, let me pass, let me reach you.” Each time I place my feet on the wire, it’s not an imposition of my personal strength, it is a communion with mysterious forces that are much stronger than myself.
Read the full article from Fast Company online.
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