How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
Recorded
Twyla Tharp
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said elsewhere, not written here
You called it vision, I call it analyzing what my strengths were. It just so happened there was no market whatsoever for my strength, unless I was interested in becoming a show dancer, for which I tried, but I’m not tall enough. Also, when I auditioned for the Radio City Rockettes, they said, “We love your fouettés, but can’t you smile?” And things of that nature transpired between me and a commercial future. So, I managed to find a way of subsisting in the beginning by doing odd jobs, Kelly Girl temp work, selling perfume at Macy’s, and any and everything to be able to sustain studying and beginning a career with a group of dancers who were willing to devote five years, really, of their lives to me, working very seriously, with complete commitment, for not a penny.
Academy of Achievement (achievement.org), 1993
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Yeah. It’s a grandiose reaction. You are claiming you could really control this, but you failed.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement, Academy of Achievement interview, New York, New York, 1 April 2005
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Agnès Varda
Film director, photographer and installation artist
I have never made any money from my films but I have won prizes and recognition. I have been on the margins forever. They all came to see me receive the award - there was Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Richard Gere and so on. I was imagining what they would all be worth in money terms. You see I was never bankable, I could not bring any money ever to the table. I like the friendships and, yes, the admiration but I don’t want to make a big fuss about it. I will go on working as long as I am able!
Recorded
Richard Mowe, Eye For Film feature interview, 12 February 2018
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Paul Farmer
Physician and medical anthropologist; co-founder of Partners In Health
And some of the things that we saw in the ’80s, really, they were failures, because patients died. But they allowed us to diagnose the systems’ problems and say, “This is where we need a community health worker system. This is where we need to make sure patients have food support while they’re getting these medicines,” et cetera. So those are examples of tragedies that certainly lead to — not just personal epiphanies — but collective epiphanies, where you say, “You know what? We can do this better if we have the system fixed.”
Recorded
Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 3 July 2009
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Jensen Huang
Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
One setback after another, we shook it off and skated to the next opportunity. Each time, we gain skills and strengthen our character. No setback that comes our way doesn't look like an opportunity these days.
Recorded
n/a, California Institute of Technology 130th Annual Commencement, 14 June 2024, NVIDIA Blog, 15 June 2024
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Question
What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong?
Values & belief
I already knew this, because I had been studying classical ballet for a long time. But a lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if you did one, you couldn’t do the other. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement (achievement.org), 1993
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Question
What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job?
Craft & work
We thought that there were certain possibilities, in terms of physical movement, in terms of community, and in terms of what dance could address in our society. And those were the issues that we went after. And we worked with a great deal of rigor. Which is to say, we were very, very dedicated. We worked six days a week, we worked at least six hours every day. We did not perform much at all. It was really about the experience of learning and exploring and growing, for five years.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement (achievement.org), 1993
source ↗
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