What are your favorite mistakes?

When most beginners nowadays see you, Evan, they see you at your best. They see you landing every trick, seemingly effortlessly. Some see a perfect thrower, but anyone that is a human is not perfect. It takes a lot of effort to get to your level. I’m sure that you have made many mistakes throughout the years. So many people want to be perfect, but I think that it is important to make mistakes. Without mistakes, the joy of accomplishment would not exist. If everything was perfect, there would be no determination, because everyone could do everything.

With this in mind, my question is this:

Throughout the years, what have been your favorite mistakes; not because of the terrible feeling of failure, but because of the breakthroughs which follow?

They do not necessarily have to be mistakes in your tricks. They can be anything that has helped you in your career or life. Give as many examples as you feel to; I am sure the community will appreciate the advice from such an experienced and inspiring professional.

3 Likes

Well Levi, I must say that if you watched me yoyo 99% of the time when I’m not on stage or in front of a camera, you’d be super bored because it’s usually just me messing up over and over again until I discover something new.

I think the biggest mistakes that actually turned out to be blessings in disguise were messing up at major yoyo contests. For example, I had a switch out at Worlds in 2016. The blessing in this was that these mistakes kept me hungry for more, and in the end created a much more refined version of my yoyo style.

Another mistake I made was flunking out of college. This one was tougher to deal with as I had to face my parents, but in the end, it was what allowed me to fully focus on yoyoing and turn it into a full time career. That is pretty damn cool to me!

1 Like

Thanks so much for the answer, Evan! I’m looking forward to seeing your freestyle at Shanghai.