Sometimes You Win. Sometimes You Learn.

Creative Highlight - Annie Spratt

Get ready… we’re going to be here for a minute… this exists to uplift us and empower us.

…I recently came across something from MKG that is SO TRUE. And I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.

Mistakes happen. Setbacks happen. You don't get the job. Someone else gets selected. The opportunity you were certain was going somewhere suddenly goes nowhere. Welcome to the wonderful world of Freelancing…

Because if you work in a creative industry long enough, you're going to experience ALL of it.

I've been a creative for more than 25 years of my life, and I've spent the last 10 years working directly with other creatives as an agent. One thing I've noticed over and over again is how quickly we can turn a disappointing experience into something negative. And it's mostly about ourselves.

They didn't choose me. I didn't get the job. They went with someone else. Did I mess that up? They didn’t even ask if I’d match their budget?And the worst and usually most untrue, maybe I'm not good enough…

What if we stopped looking at every experience solely through the lens of whether we won?

We can't win them all. Unless you’re Helen Hadsell.. link attached if you haven’t heard of her. Because we can definitely learn a little something from Helen too… ;)

And this is proof that we can get close. Really close. And sometimes, getting close means something too.

You Were Seen!

This has ALWAYS been my first and most excited reminder to creatives!!!

You were seen.

Someone looked at your work!

Someone considered your perspective!

Your portfolio made it onto someone's screen, into a conversation, onto a shortlist, into a meeting, or across the desk of someone who may remember your name six months from now. Timing is EVERYTHING after all.

Maybe you didn't get this opportunity. Because it was finally time for your fellow creative to have theirs?

I've watched creatives immediately focus on the person who got the job even going as far as following their stories during and after the job instead of recognizing how far they themselves made it in the process.

Being considered isn't failure.

Getting the meeting isn't failure.

Making the shortlist isn't failure.

Having someone remember your work isn't failure.

Sometimes the win isn't getting the job.

The win is getting closer.

What Can You Take With You?

This doesn't only apply to rejection.

Maybe a project didn't go the way you wanted.

Maybe you handled something differently than you would today.

Maybe you had a genuinely bad experience.

Those things happen too! It’s a part of the process!

The questions we can ask instead are,

What can I take from this?

• What did I learn about the way I work?

• What would I do differently next time?

• Did I learn something about my pricing? My boundaries? My communication? My process?

• Did I discover the kind of client I want or the kind I don't?

• Did I realize my portfolio needs something? Was it missing something?

• Did I meet someone I wouldn't have met otherwise?

• Did the experience make me better prepared for the next opportunity?

Even the experiences we wouldn't choose to repeat can give us something useful.

The biggest loss is going through something difficult and refusing to learn anything from it.

And When Someone Else Wins...

This one can be complicated.

Sometimes another creative gets the opportunity you wanted, and you can genuinely be happy for them.

Sometimes you find out they came in at a significantly lower rate, agreed to terms you wouldn't have agreed to, or made choices that leave you wondering whether you ever really had a chance.

You're allowed to be frustrated by that.

Supporting other creatives doesn't mean pretending every decision made within our industry is one we have to agree with. It doesn't mean ignoring practices that can affect rates, expectations, or the value of creative work.

But it also doesn't mean we have to turn someone else's opportunity into evidence that we're failing.

Their win is not proof of your loss.

That's the distinction matters.

You can believe you were worth the rate you quoted and still acknowledge that someone else got the job.

You can be disappointed and still recognize how far you made it in the process.

You can disagree with how an opportunity played out without allowing it to change how you see the value of your own work.

And when there is a creative win we can genuinely celebrate? I think we should.

More I saw what you did, and that's incredible.

More sharing the work of people around us.

More referrals when someone else is better suited for an opportunity.

More understanding that another creative's visibility doesn't automatically mean less visibility for us.

Because creative careers are long.

The person whose work you support today may recommend you tomorrow. The client who didn't choose you this time may remember you for something else. The creative whose work inspires you may eventually become a collaborator.

We don't always know what an experience is leading us toward while we're standing in the middle of it.

Sometimes You Win. Sometimes You Learn.

After 25 years of being creative and 10 years of supporting creatives, I don't think success is about collecting an uninterrupted series of wins.

No creative career looks like that.

It's about what you do with everything in between.

The rejection.

The almost.

The mistake.

The weird project.

The difficult client.

The opportunity you thought was yours.

The person who got it instead.

The moment someone finally says yes.

Take something from all of it.

Celebrate the wins when they're yours.

Celebrate them when they belong to someone else.

Learn from the experiences that didn't go the way you hoped.

And when you get close but don't quite get there, don't immediately tell yourself you lost.

You were in the room.

You were considered.

You were seen.

And sometimes, that's how the next win begins.