Thursday, October 29, 2009
It Helps To Fail
I had the pleasure of hearing Pattie Sellers, the Editor at Large, of FORTUNE magazine speak tonight. She created the Most Powerful Women list and writes long form profiles. Her views on what makes a strong leader included the following: First, it helps to fail. Second, resilience is important. Overall, she claimed the most important quality for leadership is adaptability and flexibility. Follow her at Fortune.com-Postcards.
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She was very inspiring as a speaker. I also liked her comment that women see power more horizontally than men - men are more hierarchical (career is a ladder on which you move up each step) while women are horizontal (career is moving laterally to grow your expertise).
ReplyDeletePattie's comments are interesting. They remind me of themes Geoff Colvin, who's also at FORTUNE, noted in his book Talent is Overrated, What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. I actually wrote a book review on his book on my blog. Here's a link if you'd like to take a look (http://mariewiltz.com/2009/07/great-crises-great-lessons-great-performance/).
ReplyDeleteI can't say enough how instructive I think failure is to ultimate success. One of my favorite quotes, by Teddy Roosevelt:
ReplyDelete"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."