I saw an interview yesterday with Sara Blakely, the inventor of Spanx, who was just announced as the youngest self-made billionaire on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the richest people on the planet.
The thing that stood out to me in the interview was that she said her father encouraged his kids to fail! She said that when they would get home from school he would ask them what they failed at that day, and he would actually be disappointed if they didn’t have a “failure” to tell him about. That was really eye-opening to me. We certainly would never set out to fail. But the idea is that we will fail. If we haven’t failed, it means we haven’t tried.
In my line of work, I must audition or “try out” for most jobs. Because of that, I fail every day. Sometimes several times a day. Of course, that’s depending on how you choose to look at it. In the world of VO, just because we audition and don’t get the job doesn’t actually mean we failed (although it is easy to feel that way). It may just be that our voice simply didn’t sound like what the decision-maker had in their head that day, and another voice did. It’s all so very subjective. But, isn’t that true for so many things?
Here is an except of an interview I found on the Internet with Sara Blakely. The full interview can be read here: How Failure Molded Spanx’s Founder
You’ve said that failure was a huge part of your success—how so?
Because I failed the LSAT (Law School Admission Test). Basically, if I had not failed, I’d have been a lawyer and there would be no Spanx. I think failure is nothing more than life’s way of nudging you that you are off course. My attitude to failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. It is liberating. Most people attach failure to something not working out or how people perceive you. This way, it is about answering to yourself.
What’s the best piece of business advice you ever received?
It probably came down to my father. When I was growing up, he encouraged us to fail. We’d come home from school and at dinner he’d say: ‘What did you fail at today?’ And if there was nothing, he’d be disappointed. It was a really interesting kind of reverse psychology. I would come home and say that I tried out for something and I was just horrible and he high-fived me.
How did you maintain your confidence when doors were closed in your face, when people didn’t get it and said “no” frequently?
I was my own focus group. I had already tried the product and I saw what it did for me. I knew if they said “no,” I just said they didn’t get it. I never second-guessed the product. Before it was actually made I did hear “no” a lot. It was very discouraging. At times I stopped out of discouragement, but I never lost confidence in the fact that it was a good idea.
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As I was getting ready to publish this blog post, I found that my friend and fellow voice actor, Lisa Rice, had just written on this very same topic on her blog! Hmmm…what does this mean? I guess it is something that we as Voice Talent struggle with and need some encouragement in this area from time to time (or hour to hour!).
Please check out Lisa’s blog post, ’cause it is excellent and very motivating! It will give you a smile and get you moving in the right direction today — even if it leads to a (temporary) failure.
If At First You Don’t Succeed…by Lisa Rice
