I stumbled last week across a short but really fun Netflix docuseries called Losers. The series profiles athletes or teams who never win the top spot in their sport, or who win it but then lose it spectacularly. I'm one of the least sporty people on the planet, but this series had me a little weepy because it was so inspiring.
My favorite episode was about a French figure skater from the 90s named Surya Bonaly. Bonaly never won an Olympic medal, and though she medaled at the world championships several times, it was never a gold medal. Throughout her career, Bonaly objectively had stronger technical skills than her competitors, but she struggled to win major international competitions because of a subjective grading system which allowed racial bias to impact her scores.
So when her last Olympic routine in 1998 was going poorly, Bonaly decided (mid-program) that she wanted to go out with a bang. Instead of her normal choreography, she did a back flip on the ice and landed on one blade - the only person ever to do that in competition. Not many people can do a backflip on the ice and hardly anyone can land it on one foot, so it's a move that’s usually only seen in exhibition shows. It's also illegal in competition. Bonaly basically threw her hands up and said "this is not going well and I know I'll get penalized for this, but you won't recognize my technical skill any other way, so try and ignore THIS."
Talk about chutzpah!
I love the saying "if you're going to sin, sin boldly." The whole concept has got some *delicious* implications for executive presence and how we show up in the workplace. It boils down to confidence in your abilities and confidence in risk taking. When was the last time you knew your boss was going to say no, but you pitched your innovative idea anyway? What about the last time you felt so strongly about something that you were willing to go down with the ship?
Badass behavior like Bonaly's also requires a level of comfort with failure that I find really inspiring. My therapist likes to say "fail fast, fail often, and fail joyfully." Conceptually, I've always understood that failure is an integral part of the learning process, but I think I'm only just now internalizing and embracing that concept.
Those are my takeaways from the story of Bonaly and the Losers docuseries: not to be so afraid of failure and rejection. To sin boldly.
Here's to screwing up!
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