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Key Takeaways A rehearsal gives you the freedom to screw up when nobody’s watching — but running a company means your audience is always watching.
Risk is a natural part of every successful performance. You can’t do anything new or noteworthy if you don’t put yourself out there in spite of the possibility of failure.
You pay the opportunity cost whether or not you succeed, so you might as well try. Even a launch that underperforms provides clarity, momentum and direction.
I’ve already written about meeting Steve Forbes, but I keep coming back to the advice he gave me that day: “This isn’t a dress rehearsal.”
For those who haven’t read that other article, he was responding to a question I’ve asked many ultra-successful people over the years: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And of all the answers I’ve received, this one has had the greatest impact on my life. But what does it really mean?
At first, this advice might sound like a cliché; another version of carpe diem exhorting us to live in the moment. And while that’s certainly good advice, it’s not terribly specific to running a business.
That’s what makes the dress rehearsal metaphor more useful for leaders. It takes a familiar idea and forces you to apply it to real decisions about time, risk and what you choose to pursue. Here’s how.
Running a company means your audience is always watching
A rehearsal has one specific purpose: It gives you the freedom to screw up when nobody’s watching. Even if you happen to be a Broadway actor, an opera singer at the Met or a Grammy-winning artist with a whole support team around you, a mistake made during rehearsal is hidden from the public.
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