LEGO Build Every Day by Alec Posta

Author:Alec Posta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC

Build It:

Find a set that’s been gathering dust on a shelf. Take it apart, by repositioning one brick at a time. Try to make something original, gradually, using only those elements.

11

Build a Duck

It was strange when I got my job as a Model Builder at LEGOLAND® Arizona. I didn’t really feel like a professional anything. My job title was so lofty, and had so much implied expectation, that I didn’t really feel like I could live up to it. For the first year, my perceived skill level and my title felt disjointed to me, and I suffered from a healthy dose of imposter syndrome. I found myself frequently comparing my own work to the work of others, and I was often embarrassed to display things I built. It was hard to find the joy in building when I spent all day questioning my own skills.

What ultimately broke me out of this cycle was a mantra I’d repeat whenever I’d feel myself slipping back into that self-critical style of thinking: “It doesn’t have to be perfect.” When it comes to building with LEGO® bricks, there is no such thing as perfect. In a system of endless possibilities and combinations, perfection doesn’t exist. Let that sink in for a minute!

People have a tendency to hyper-focus on the flaws in something, especially something they themselves have created. In acknowledging and accepting that those flaws are going to be there no matter what, it becomes easier to look at the big picture. When you step back and breathe, you’re able to see your successes alongside your shortcomings. You don’t have to be ecstatic with what you’ve made (or even happy at all, for that matter), but what you should do is realize that it has value, even if it’s just a stepping-stone to something you create in the future.

There is a famous activity that the LEGO Group asks new hires to complete at the beginning of their training. They offer everyone in the room the same set of bricks, set a timer, and give a simple instruction: Please build a duck. (One of the first LEGO toys ever built was a wooden duck, so it’s a nice callback to the company’s roots.) Everyone scrambles to assemble the core parts: head, bill, body, legs before the building time is over. The room is suddenly filled with ducks—tall ones, square ones, flat ones, one-legged ones—ducks of all shapes and sizes. And guess what? In the end, they’re all ducks. In the LEGO system, there is no “right way” to build a duck. There is only your way.

Allow yourself to create without expectation. It’s okay if you think your design could be better: The work you put into creating something “bad” feeds into making you a stronger designer, artist, engineer, or whatever it is you’re interested in achieving. Reminding yourself of this every day is your best line of defense in maintaining a growth mindset and progressing as an artist.

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