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Fred Astaire on Making Mistakes

Famed entertainer Fred Astaire is known not only for his victories, but also for his early failures.

An oft-cited description of an casting review for Astaire reads as follows:

“Balding. Can’t sing. Dances a little.”

The dancer had his own point of view on errors. He’s been quoted as saying:

“The higher up you go the more mistakes you’re allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it’s considered your style.”

There’s one more quote about failure and success associated with Fred Astaire. But it has to do with his colleague, Ginger Rogers:

“Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.”

Failure is the secret to success. If you’re starting out, don’t be discouraged by people who dismiss you as incompetent. And if you’re on top, don’t be afraid to make errors, because they may just be considered your style.

And if you’re the partner in the dance, remember that you may have an even tougher job to do! That makes your work all the more important in the end.

Related Posts

1. History’s Top 25 Mistakes
   An article on Business Insider outlines the worst errors in history. From their perspective, however, worst means “most expensive.”
2. 10 Mistakes In Business
   You’re about to read the title of a Wall Street Journal article. It’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to want to click to read more.
3. No Mistakes Kills Your Career
   A new piece shared by reader Carissa Newton explains Six Ways To Kill Your Marketing Career. The number one method: you don’t make any mistakes.
4. Learning From Mistakes
   There’s an old story about a computer programmer who openly talked to the press. He accurately reported the number of known bugs in a program, and thus risked the product’s success.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.