Creativity Quote by Barry Mann

A veteran of the Brill Building era, Barry Mann speaks from the blunt math of creative work: most attempts fail to land. In the New York hit factory where he and Cynthia Weil wrote, rewrote, and pitched songs day after day, the pipeline was relentless. Demos circulated to publishers, producers, and artists; most were passed over, many were shelved, and a rare few became the records everyone remembers. That asymmetry is the point. The public sees the successes, but a working songwriter lives amid the pile of noes that make a yes possible.

The statement is not a lament; it is practical orientation. Expecting rejection normalizes it. It separates judgment of the work from judgment of the self, keeps the ego light enough to try again tomorrow, and turns each refusal into information rather than a verdict. Craft improves under those conditions. Mann’s catalog proves the power of persistence: one season’s discard can be another artist’s breakthrough when the arrangement, singer, or timing changes. A closed door today may simply mean the wrong room.

The principle stretches far beyond music. Salespeople cold-call far more leads than they convert. Scientists endure stacks of declined manuscripts. Entrepreneurs watch prototypes miss before product-market fit clicks. Any field with gatekeepers, taste, and uncertainty runs on low hit rates. Framed correctly, that is liberating. If rejection is the default, then progress is measured by volume of smart attempts, speed of iteration, and durability of morale, not by a streak of unbroken wins.

Mann’s line also guards against myths of genius and inevitability. Great songs were not single strokes; they were outcomes of a system that encouraged prolific output and tolerated failure. The work is to keep writing, keep submitting, adjust, and try again. Acceptance is precious precisely because it is rare, and the way to meet it is to outlast the noes.