Young Washington: How Failure Forged an Extraordinary Leader

What turns an ordinary young man into an extraordinary leader? For filmmaker John Erwin, the answer can be found in the early life of George Washington—and in the failures, disappointments, and hardships that shaped him long before he became America’s first president.

In this episode of the Going Big! podcast, Kevin Gentry sits down with Erwin, the filmmaker behind I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution, American Underdog, House of David, and the new film Young Washington. The conversation explores why Erwin became fascinated with Washington and what his story can teach us about leadership, perseverance, and going big.

The Story Behind Young Washington

Erwin’s interest in Washington began unexpectedly. After becoming fascinated with the American Revolution and its founding figures, he began reading deeply about the period. The more he learned, the more Washington stood out.

Before the myth, the dollar bill, and Mount Rushmore was a young man who made mistakes, took enormous risks, and sometimes failed spectacularly. Erwin describes discovering a formative period of Washington’s life that many Americans know little about.

Those experiences, he argues, reveal the character Washington would eventually need to lead a revolution and hold together a new nation.

Failure as a Teacher

One of the central lessons of the conversation is that Washington’s greatness was forged through adversity.

As a young officer, Washington made consequential mistakes. He was ambitious, inexperienced, and at times put his own ambitions ahead of the men he was responsible for. But rather than allowing those failures to define him, he learned from them.

Erwin believes that distinction matters for all of us. Success may be where we reap the rewards of our work, but failure is often where we learn the lessons that prepare us for what comes next.

Washington eventually came to understand leadership as an act of service. His responsibility was larger than his own ambition. That transformation helped prepare him for the extraordinary challenges ahead.

Finding the Work That Calls You

Erwin’s own journey reflects a similar willingness to take risks and learn along the way. He began working with cameras as a teenager, eventually filming college footbal

l games for ESPN. He and his brother built a production company and took on almost every kind of project imaginable as they developed their craft.

The turning point came while working on the film Courageous, when director Alex Kendrick asked Erwin a simple question: What is the purpose of your work?

The question forced Erwin to reconsider what he was building. He began moving beyond simply providing a service and toward creating stories that he believed could meaningfully affect people’s lives.

That philosophy has guided his filmmaking ever since.

Go Big by Creating, Not Criticizing

Jon and Kevin ultimately return to a broader idea: if you believe something matters, help build it.

Erwin argues that it is much easier to criticize than to create. The American founders did not simply complain about the world they inherited. They imagined something different, took enormous risks, and worked together to build it.

That same mindset sits at the heart of Young Washington. The film asks audiences to look beyond the familiar historical figure and discover the young man whose failures, endurance, and willingness to serve helped forge an extraordinary leader.

And perhaps that is the challenge for all of us: What are we willing to build, risk, and learn from as we pursue our own opportunity to go big?