I went to a standup comedy show a year ago. Most comics were bad. When a joke didn’t land, they blamed it on the crowd. They mumbled under their breath and they tried again, with underwhelming vigor.
The comedy show I went to the other day was 10x better. I’m sure of the comics were testing new material. I know some of it didn’t land, but no one blamed the audience. No one mumbled to themselves. Every single one of them bounced back and kept going.
Some might say “these were good comics and those were bad comics.” But I think the attitude toward failure had a key role in getting them to be good comics.
Who do you blame when you fail? How do you react and what do you do with that information? The answer to those questions might make all the difference.