157. AMY POEHLER: Great people do things before they’re ready
Amy Poehler is one of my favourite funny people, known for her portrayal as Pawnee’s Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation, which I’m a big fan of. She’s also a Saturday Night Live alum and co-founded the influential improv school, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
Besides being an incredibly talented and hilarious performer, Poehler has started projects to promote women’s rights and empower young girls. Her website Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls is a hub for young women to learn and be part of a community, and in her YouTube series Ask Amy, Poehler gives advice and answers questions from fans.
This quote is taken from an Ask Amy video about courage.
RELATED COMICS: John Green Make Gifts for People. Brené Brown The Woman in the Arena. Terence McKenna Nature Loves Courage. Ira Glass Advice for Beginners. Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman.
– Thanks to Elise, professional blogger and crafty person, for introducing me to this quote. She used it in her World Domination Summit talk.
– I wrote a wrap-up of my recent USA trip, including how my own WDS speech went.
Discussion (77) ¬
Can’t fail unless you try! Amy’s such a funny lady and really gives some good perspective there. I always build things up to be much worse than reality in my head. Once I try something new, I end up saying “that wasn’t so bad.”
Loved the little girl with water squirting out of her nose from laughing so hard…Amy Poehler is another one with magic. Thanks!!
LOL I had to look again, I haven’t noticed.
^same here XD
Haha !! Right !!
Haha!!! I feel like I have defeated the space/time continuum. I’m in the US, where it is still 8/7. I was just checking in for some inspiration to find a new amazing comic, by one of my favorite actresses/leaders/inspiring people. Excellent work, Gavin! Thank you so much!
Great as always. Love these words from Amy, and your depiction of her! Especially the soccer comedy scene where the coach has steam coming from his ears. Those details are perfect. :]
Great to see you back at it so soon after your trip! Also looking forward to watching your speech video once it’s uploaded!
Maybe I’m a bitter and angry person who won’t succum to much since I protest this advice from successful peoples words, but I don’t think it’s right to encourage people to go out and “do things before they know how to do it”.
Especially when, like in the comic, it’s in a team with others.
Case in point: a number of employees where I work have gone way over their abilities and backgrounds which have caused a tremendous loss for everyone. Not a case of “boldly go where no one has”, or a “you’ll never know unless you try”, but a case of said “doing things you don’t know how”. Self exploration at the cost of others (lost time, money, my mind), when placing someone competent in there instead would have benefitted everyone.
Nothing against self exploration when it comes to yourself, but illustrating it with a team (soccerplayers in this case) may not be the best way to go forth.
I think it works better if you don’t approach it in such an absolute context. In the comic’s story, it’s children’s soccer. In that scenario, none of the children would yet know if they’re going to be any good at soccer. The protagonist of the comic merely ends up being one who discovers she is not – but is good at something else. Not quite someone screwing up mission critical efforts at a technology company. The ethic in the words and images is that you cannot be afraid to try something you don’t yet know if you can do.
It’s also a chid trying something out at a practice, not the championship game, bit more context. If you can’t try out something new at a practice, where you’re supposed to be learning new skills, then you can never learn anything new. Or fail. Whatever.
It’s not about situations where you have to show moderation. It’s about life in general.
How would you know if you’re horrible at dancing if you’ve never taken a lesson?
Or how would you know you hate hiking without trying it at least once?
It’s not about climbing Mount Everest without safety gear and training, or bankrupting your company through inept stock trades.
It’s about taking a chance and trying something new and unfamiliar.
Maybe even as simple as baking a cake or going to a theater to watch a live play (as opposed to movies)…
Thanks a ton for this poster.
I just joined graduate school and as usual, I am freaked out. I have been in a dilemma if I should opt for certain courses for people say that the course work is tough. Now, this comic gives me the hope to try and see it for myself. Today is the last day for registration and I am in for the challenge.
Thanks a lot, again:)
I really have to thank you Gav, my past two years have been really hard for me because I was stuck in a place where I didn’t want to be… Your work helped me build the courage I needed to get out of that place and look for what will really make me happy, and just taking that decision has changed my life greatly for the better. I still check most of the comics to keep on motivating myself.
I know it won’t be easy, but I also know that I can support myself, my courage and hope in work like yours. Never stop doing it because I’m 100% sure that I’m not the only one that feels this way about your comics.
Again thank you and a thousand times thank you.
I laughed out so loudly but this comic is actually a very good analogy of how people discovered the best in them, while they are trying one thing or another out, I knew of a guy that read Engineering with me that’s now a comedian, and another who is now a big dj was in my graduating set with a degree in Electronics Engineering.
Love the Ron Swanson Coach!
This is lovely, funny and inspiring!! Thank you 🙂
This is exactly what I need.
Will there be a poster of this one?
Love this one, very funny. Thank you, Gav
Reminds me of the episode of the Simpson’s where Lisa tries gymnastics.
very true! Know yourself! Its very important to know what you can’t do to know what you can do.
Liked the comics too. Very simple and comic.
Thanks!
My son and I laughed so hard! And the details are just amazing…
your creativity inspires me, thanks!
You made my day with this comic.
Specifically al the girls laughing made me laugh the same way. Amazing stuff as always Gavin!
Hello Gav. I’m a big fan of yours and I really love your work. As long as I remember my life I’ve been a huge fan of Robin Williams and he was my favorite actor. I’m sending you this message due to his resent death because I thing you are one of the few who can express his greatness through your art. So I’m asking, could you please make something for Robin Williams? He has said some really great quotes. Thank you in advance.
I second Elisabeth’s recommendation.
Hilarious!
HAHAHA this was great!
THIS IS LAME. ALL COMICS OF THIS DRAWS ARE FUCKING LAME. CAFÉ CON LECHE DRINKERS
Not quite sure why you are wasting your time looking at all of them then. And by the way, he is an artist, not a “draws”. Your English is also lame.
Absolutely love it, when it’s put like that it’s so simple.
You have just got to go at things like an overly excited puppy and enjoy whatever happens and whatever the outcome, and if you can laugh at whatever happens, then you are a winner either way.
Good one Gav. 🙂
Fantastic! Shared this with my daughter today (6) and she enjoyed it too. A great way to get a very valid point across. Thanks for sharing!
I just think your Zen Pencils are utterly fantastic…the Brene Brown one brought tears to my eyes. Great job, man. You are truly talented!!!
Would love to print this and put it my kids’ room. Any chance there’s a way to pay for this privilege? Thanks!
Inspiring!!!
This is so awesome!
Love this cartoon (and I love Amy!) 🙂
thanks for sharing.. love this
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nice bro..
I loved this! Amy Poehler is such an inspirational woman. I think this graphic accuratley portrays exactly what she’s trying to say. She’s a very comical woman and I know she’d appreciate the pictures behind her words. The graphic gives young girls the encouragement to not be afraid to failure. These powerful words combined with youthful graphics created the comical feel that fits Amy Poehler’s personality while instilling the confidence and encouragement she’s trying to promote. Without the graphic, the words could be viewed in several different ways–all depending on who you are as a person and what your goals are. If the graphic didn’t have Poehler’s words along with them, it may have been viewed as a story of a sassy girl making fun of her soccer coach when that wasn’t the sole intention. The words attached to this graphic explain that it’s important to put yourself out there, try something you never thought you would! You never know, maybe you’ll be great, and maybe you’ll suck. The moral of the story is, you’ll never know if you don’t give it a try; and even if you do totally stink, you can always turn grass into fake mustache’s and make fun of your evil soccer coach!
good information.. thank for sharing
This is co cute and really nice.
Besides being an incredibly talented and hilarious performer,
good information.. thank for sharing
Besides being an incredibly talented and hilarious performer,
nice bro..
Besides being an incredibly talented and hilarious performer…
ha ha …. that was an awesome one 🙂 Thumbs up 🙂
NICE ONE….. GREAT WORK
As an educator in a girls’ school, I love the context. Can’t see why people make a fuss of it.
I would buy this if this was in canvas (hopefully you consider this Gavin!)
nice again, very useful boss
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Thanks for your comic.
Nice article.
Thanks for article.
like it.
Great to see you back at it so soon after your trip! Also looking forward to watching your speech video once it’s uploaded!
Great as always. Love these words from Amy, and your depiction of her! Especially the soccer comedy scene where the coach has steam coming from his ears. Those details are perfect.
A compromise is an agreement whereby both parties get what neither of them wanted
Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it.”
The healthiest among us is not exempt from hereditary disease. The most symmetrical, athletic, and long-lived is a being inexpressibly inferior to what he would have been had not the unnatural habits of his ancestors accumulated for him a certain portion of malady and deformity…. Can a return to nature, then, instantaneously eradicate predispositions that have been slowly taking root in the silence of innumerable ages? — Indubitably not.
Old customs are easy to forget with the flashing of events in our lives. Easy to forget, like the heavy clothing we once wore to survive the winters. It is an old custom, the handing down of things. A good knife, a well-made pipe, a heavy robe. Tradition falls prey to constant change, and creativity becomes so revered that the past is a relic, only to be admired. But in this coat, I was held to the earth, pulled to the past by its weight.
Thank you Gavin for your “AMY POEHLER: Great people do things before they’re ready” comic post
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Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilization generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.
New technology is the true friend of full employment; the indispensable ally of progress; and the surest guarantee of prosperity.Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilization generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.
Thanks a ton for this poster.
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It’s true No one cares ,Keep attempting is the messages and this is really nice.
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