This is the antidote to failure according to Mike Nichols

This is the antidote to failure according to Mike NicholsThis is the antidote to failure according to Mike NicholsIn her terrific book on creativity,Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert recounts a story about Mike Nichols, who is the prolific director behind many classics includingThe Graduate(plastics, anyone?).Although people tend to remember Nicholss hits, many of his films were flops. Some of the flops would appear from time to time - as flops do - on late-night television. Whenever Nichols would come across one of these failures late at night, hed grab a bucket of proverbial popcorn, park himself on his couch, and watch the whole thing from start to finish.As he sat and watched, whats important is what he wouldleiddo. He would not cringe. He would not look away. He would not blame the damn critics for getting it wrong.Hed simply watch and think, Thats so interesting, how that scene didnt work out. NotIm a loser.NotThis is awful. NotWhat a complete embarrassment.Instead, with no judgme nt, hed ponder, Isnt it funny how sometimes things work and other times they dont?Nicholss approach is the antidote to failure Curiosity. To paraphrase Elizabeth Gilbert, curiosity takes an awful outcome, turns the volume of the drama all the way down, and makes it interesting. It provides emotional distance, perspective, and an opportunity to view things through a different lens.When we shun curiosity and react to failure with shame or anger, two things happen. First, we forego a learning opportunity. You cant do much learning when youre busy berating yourself or shaking your fist at the clouds. Second, when we overreact to failure, we empower it. Failure starts downing energy drinks and doing pull-ups and roars back the next time stronger than ever.In the book,The Art of Possibility, Ros and Ben Zander offer a practical method for disempowering failure through curiosity. Every time you make a mistake, every time you fail at something, they urge you to throw your arms in the air an d say How fascinatingFair warning If youre anything like me, youll grumble when you first do this. As you try to put your arms in the air, theyll go up ever so slowly - as if youre doing an imaginary bench press with really, really heavy weights. And the phrase How fascinating will sound more petulant than joyous.Thats okay. Do it anyway. As you bask in the glory of your fascination, start asking some questions.What if this failure was actually good for me? What can I learn from this? How can I treat this crisis as training for the next one?If you need inspiration, just picture Mike Nichols, sitting on his couch - not complaining about how the Gods have turned on him by broadcasting his biggest failures on cable television for the world to see - but smiling, nodding, and knowing that watching this failure with curiosity means hell do better the next time.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, T he Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).Thisarticlefirst appeared onOzanVarol.com.