Creative genius isn’t what we think it is. After watching a decade of intimate footage following Hayao Miyazaki, I discovered that our greatest creators aren’t fearless visionaries—they’re doubt-ridden artists who break past despair to create anyway.
“The creation of a single world comes from
a huge number of fragments and chaos.”
―Hayao Miyazaki
I played hooky on Wednesday, and it was beyond delicious.
After several weeks of deep, emotional work, my brain and soul needed a respite, a reset. I knew the perfect wellspring of inspiration I craved: a documentary Tim Ferriss mentioned in his Friday newsletter, 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki.
For four hours or so, I sat, transfixed. Transported to another realm.
I was lifted up and out of my body, not unlike a character in a Miyazaki animated film, soaring through cloudless skies of expansive imagination, in ever-widening loops of flight and delight.
Watching Miyazaki’s process and bearing witness to his life, his heart, transported me to my past, present, and future like a film reel playing inside a glowing orb within my mind’s eye.
Witnessing a creative genius at work models for us what the journey entails. The highs, the impossibly challenging lows.
What we find isn’t a flawless visionary effortlessly spinning masterpieces out of thin air. We find a man in his seventies, still doubting every frame he draws, frustrated with his team, uncertain of his story, afraid it won’t be good enough.
Yes, Hayao Miyazaki despairs too.
Miyazaki’s Despair
Over a decade of intimate footage, we see Miyazaki agonize over his own perceived limitations. He declares he’s retiring more than once. He calls his story ideas shallow. He paces, mutters, rewrites.
And yet, he keeps drawing.
In that act, mundane, repetitive, and steeped in uncertainty, he reveals the truth that all creators must face: Despair is not the enemy. It is the signal.
It signals that we are pushing toward the edge of something real. That we’re venturing past the comfortable patterns, past what we already know we can do.
The despair phase means we’re not coasting.
We’re searching.
The myth of creative genius would have us believe that greatness flows from unshakable confidence. But Miyazaki reminds us it often emerges from wrestling with doubt, from questioning, from walking into the fog and refusing to turn back.
He doesn’t wait to be sure. He draws. He gets it wrong. He tries again.
Entrepreneurs and creators often mistake these dark phases as signs to stop. But what if they’re the doorway? What if that inner resistance is actually the friction that shapes our voice, our vision, our breakthrough?
Miyazaki’s studio wasn’t filled with magic. It was filled with drafts. Many failed attempts lying in cardboard boxes, makeshift trash cans. It was filled with frustration. Little victories. And enormous, grinding perseverance.
So if today your startup feels stuck, or your manuscript is a mess, or your art feels meaningless, don’t panic. You’re not broken. You’re in process.
And being in process is sacred.
So, how do we press beyond this barrier of despair?
Return to the work. Not because it’s easy, but because it matters.
You don’t have to feel ready. Miyazaki never did. And yet he created worlds.
If you’re stuck, let that be a signal. Not of failure, but of the depth you’re about to find. Stay with the blank page. Stay in the fog. Trust that something is forming, even if you can’t name it yet.
Draw the next frame. Write the next line. Build the next toehold on the rock wall.
Greatness doesn’t come from avoiding despair. It comes from creating anyway.
Still feeling stuck? Schedule a free and fun exploratory call with me at this link.
