peter
“I’ve put a lot of effort into not thinking of things in my life as failures. I took time out of college, there have been things about the magazine that weren’t what I wanted them to be, there were exams I should have done better in… but I don’t think it’s truthful or very useful to tell some story about how I had all these problems but now things are going well. I don’t think it’s that you learn from your failures exactly, but that you build up enough self-assurance that life stops being about ‘failing’ or ‘succeeding’ and you’re just showing up and doing whatever it is that’s going to make you feel alive. I was on time out from college following two family deaths when Lauren asked me to start the magazine with her. It was the first thing I did without an idea of doing well or succeeding. I had ambitions for it, I went into what was supposed to be a one-year college publication talking about how fashion journalism, in general, needed something new, but I wasn’t trying to achieve anything. I just loved what I got to do. I liked that FRANC was a space that wasn’t about holding things up in reverence or being told what to do but being curious and engaging with something. I forget that when I’m tired; when I get overwhelmed feeling like I haven’t done enough and worrying that people will stop showing up. But I’m getting a little better at knowing that those thoughts are just tiredness and not a sign I should freak out. There are lots of things in my life that aren’t super sparkly. But I don’t think of those things as failures, I genuinely believe I did the best I could.”
This story is part of our new series called ‘A day in the Life’ where you can follow some of our young entrepreneurs and start-ups around for a day in Dublin. Briony will take over and post exclusively in our “Stories” for a whole day giving you insights into their creative process and what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in Dublin. Follow us on Instagram! — @humansofdub —