Success might feel like the destination, but for playwright and Emmy-winning writer Billy Aronson, failure was the real teacher.
Billy Aronson’s name may not be as widely known as the Broadway sensation he helped spark — RENT — but his story is a masterclass in creative resilience. In a candid and inspiring conversation, Aronson pulls back the curtain on decades spent in the arts, showing how failure, rejection, and quiet persistence shaped a career filled with depth, humor, and impact.
Here’s what Billy learned — and what every creator can take from it.
🎭 The RENT That Got Away
Aronson famously originated the concept of RENT, inspired by La Bohème and the gritty realities of 1980s New York. He envisioned a rock opera that spoke to his generation — raw, real, and unpolished. Collaborating with a then-unknown Jonathan Larson, Aronson co-wrote early songs like “Santa Fe” and “Rent,” but creative friction and lack of traction led him to step away from the project.
By most metrics, that’s a devastating decision. But Aronson doesn’t frame it that way.
Instead, he owns it as one of the most pivotal decisions in his life. “I didn’t want to spend time on something that wasn’t going anywhere,” he reflects. While RENT would go on to become a global phenomenon, Aronson’s willingness to walk away gave him room to grow — and fail — in other ways.
And those failures were where the real growth happened.
💥 The Education of Falling Flat
In his early career, Aronson talks openly about bombing — not metaphorically, but quite literally sitting in the back of a theater during one of his plays and watching it fall flat with the audience. One especially painful moment involved a farce set in a mental institution. What he thought was a bold, edgy premise was met with silence and discomfort. It taught him a powerful lesson: audiences are a jury, and their reactions don’t lie.
“You just learn so quickly,” he says. “An audience can tell when something feels unfair, unkind, or off.”
That moment could have wrecked his confidence. Instead, it sharpened his instincts. Aronson began writing tighter, more honest material. He cut the fluff. He started learning from every scene that didn’t land.
And he never learned those lessons from a standing ovation — only from failure.
📉 Success Isn’t a Good Teacher
As Aronson puts it, “Success doesn’t really teach you anything. It just makes you feel great — maybe a little too great.”
In contrast, failure gives you feedback. It forces you to ask harder questions. It humbles you, which, for Aronson, became the secret weapon in his long-term creative sustainability.
When a performance falls short, he doesn’t spin it — he studies it. Whether it’s a poorly received play or a joke that doesn’t land in a TV script, he considers failure a compass pointing to something deeper. Often, it’s not the concept that’s wrong — it’s how you’re expressing it. It’s in the nuance.
📺 Writing for Kids, Winning Emmys — and Still Learning
You might not expect the co-creator of RENT to also write for Peg + Cat and Beavis & Butt-Head, but that’s Billy Aronson’s eclectic reality. His pivot into children’s programming brought both new challenges and unexpected validation — including Emmy wins and a long-running show on PBS.
But even there, failure showed up.
Episodes fell flat. Humor didn’t always translate. He had to learn how to serve a different audience without losing his voice. “It was about writing something that grown-ups could sit through too,” he explains. “That’s hard.”
Still, he calls the work joyful — not because it was perfect, but because it kept him stretching. Staying flexible became more valuable than staying flawless.
🧠 Mental Health, Self-Doubt, and Staying in the Game
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Aronson’s story is his openness about depression and anxiety. While many creatives glamorize the struggle, he’s clear-eyed about it.
He describes dealing with a long, low-grade depression that became more intense in his 60s. And yet, even in the depths, he kept creating — not because it was easy, but because it was necessary. Through therapy, yoga, and time, he found clarity and joy again.
One surprising realization? Being happy didn’t make him less creative. In fact, he says, “It’s even better when you’re happy.”
This stands in stark contrast to the tortured artist myth. Aronson proves that art can come from healing just as much as it can from pain.
🧭 Rewriting the Definition of Success
For many, success is measured in spotlights, awards, and mass recognition. But Aronson offers a different lens: success is being able to keep doing the work, regardless of who’s watching.
He may not be the household name behind RENT, but he’s built a rich, enduring creative life. He’s mentored writers, made children laugh, and turned failure into wisdom. He’s also written a brutally honest and funny book, Out of My Head, to document the journey in full color.
And perhaps most importantly, he kept showing up — even when the audience was silent.
🎤 Failure Is the Better Teacher
Billy Aronson’s story isn’t neat, polished, or tied with a bow. It’s messy, real, and filled with detours — and that’s what makes it matter.
He didn’t just learn from failure. He learned how to learn from failure. And that mindset turned into a creative philosophy that’s helped him thrive in theater, television, and life.
So if your latest project flopped, your pitch got rejected, or you’re in a quiet season of doubt — take it from Billy.
That might be the exact lesson you’ve been waiting for.