I Get What You Were Trying to Do
A Lesson from Jim Henson on his 87th Birthday
Last week, Jim Henson would have turned 87. Here’s one of my favorite stories, about the time he met a restless, creatively frustrated twenty-something.
Caroll, who had just been turned down as a cartoonist by Disney a few years earlier, decided to pivot and try his hand as a puppeteer instead, entering puppet festivals and experimenting with new acts and ideas. During one particular festival performance, Jim happened to be in the audience. A few minutes in and the lights—a key ingredient for making the performance successful—suddenly stopped working. The operator in the back of the theatre missed a cue and it ruined the whole trick.
Caroll abruptly left the stage, frustrated and humiliated. A few minutes later, Jim came backstage to meet him. Caroll knew who Jim was. He was already well-known for his national television work, but the two had never met before.
“I get what you were trying to do.”
That’s what Jim told Caroll in his trademark quiet, even voice. Jim then offered him a job on a new program he was developing with the Children’s Television Workshop, an experiment they were calling Sesame Street.
A few months later, Carroll would go on to create the show’s iconic lead, Big Bird.
Jim Henson was a master at seeing potential where others saw failure. He was brilliant at sniffing out value in people when they could barely see it in themselves. He was referred to as having “a whim of steel.” If he imagined something could be possible, he was going to make it happen, and you were going to help. Period.
As creative story-changers it’s a reminder to practice a.) identifying those opportunities where the future we imagine doesn’t quite exist yet and b.) nurturing that transition from “now” to “not yet” with patient, persistent hope.
The risk, of course, is that we might be wrong. It might not work. We might fail spectacularly. But imagine a world without Big Bird, Muppets, or people who believed in each other against the odds.
The alternative is just damn boring.