Make Mistakes, Don’t be Afraid, and Try Everything

Make mistakes, don’t be afraid, and try everything. This was, by far, the best advice I have ever been given. Frank Prisinzano, a chef in NYC and Italy, (who seemingly answers every Instagram message anyone sends him, and I am sure we are best of friends), told me to make mistakes, don’t be afraid, and try everything (he used more colorful language, but you get the gist). What we were talking about was my newest gadget, a dual-fuel pizza oven that scared the life out of me. See, Frank specializes in wood-fired pizza and has several restaurants centered around these amazing ovens. So it was, very much out of my comfort zone to even ask him about my little pizza oven. It would be like asking Monet how he painted those striking lilies. In a world that is a bit topsy-turvy, to say the least, I have found that most people want to help others, and you will never really know unless you ask. So I asked, and I was not disappointed.

Armed with pizza dough, ALL the toppings, semolina flour, and several pizza peels, last weekend, my husband, my chickens, and I tested her out. Mistakes were made, notes were taken, and we did try everything, and as I sit here burning off the mistakes of the last weekend, I thought about that advice and how it works not just in the kitchen, but arguably everywhere in life. Trying something new that you know nothing about is uncomfortable, to say the least. But when we were making those pizzas, there was so much love and laughter in the room. There was pizza dough flying in the air and landing on the kitchen floor. There were comments like “quick pick it up,” “the five-second rule counts,” and “don’t worry, the 600 degrees of the pizza oven will kill anything”.

Was the pizza great? No, it most certainly was not! Were all the pizzas cooked through? Definitely no! Complete transparency, the picture at the top of this post is of my pizza, and it was 100% raw inside. Was there wine and so much love floating around my table? Very much yes! There was so much laughter and love that we would have missed out on had I stayed safely in my comfort zone, not to mention thousands of dollars gone to waste because I was afraid to turn on an oven.

I have another project that’s just sitting in my craft room, waiting for me to try it, and I’m terrified of it, but why? Why am I afraid? No one is going to get hurt or die if I try. I feel like I won’t be good enough, but as I sit here, I wonder out loud to no one at all, “good enough for what?” “Good enough for who?” So tomorrow, I’m going to dig out that project that I’ve had sitting there for a good month, and I’m going to make some mistakes. And as I waited for the pizza oven to cool so I could vacuum out the ashes, I wondered how many things we miss out on because we are afraid. I’m not the only one afraid to try new things, and I’m curious what’s stopping you from trying something new?

We shouldn’t be afraid to try things, and as I get to the end of this post, I think how silly I was to be scared of a pizza oven! I mean, sure, you have to preheat it to 900 degrees, and arguably it could be used as a mini crematorium, but what was there to be afraid of? How silly I am to be scared of my next project. How silly it is that I’m terrified of failure. Some of the most amazing things are born out of failure. So, I challenge you this month: try something you’ve been afraid to try. You might just be surprised at all the beauty that is born out of your fear and failure.

Be brave. Make mistakes. Take notes and try everything!