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Power Women Say Failure Isn't a Dirty Word

Emily Co — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:00:12 PDT

Failure doesn't have to crush you, it can even make you stronger. It's OK to fail as long as you learn from it, CEO of VMware Diane Greene said last night at a Women 2.0 event. It's a line that I've heard from many powerful women: don't be afraid of failure. In fact, the queen of fantasy, J.K. Rowling, said in a Harvard commencement speech two years ago that "rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life." You're only selling yourself short if you play safe your whole life because you're too afraid of making a mistake.

It's refreshing to hear this, because we've all been taught that failure is a dirty word, and we're mostly driven by our fear of doing something wrong. In fact, even science agrees with this - research from MIT says that we learn more from succeeding rather than failing. However, I don't think that's true for every scenario, and I think it's ultimately up to us to reap the benefits and learn from our failures. Sugar readers seemed to agree with this, and 76 percent of them said on a TrèsSugar survey that they have learned more from their mistakes than their wins.

You don't have to be a CEO of a company or a billionaire author to make mistakes; it's something that everyone inevitably experiences in their life. It can be a time when you're stretched at work with too many meetings or are struggling to graduate from school. Or maybe you're feeling overwhelmed by a massive credit card debt. Just take a deep breath and take a page from these power women - pick yourself up and get going, and see these blunders as a learning experience.

Learn From the Game: Mia Hamm

FitSugar — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:15:00 PDT

After a long week, I was searching for a little inspiration and I found this gem:

"Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it." - Mia Hamm

I think Mia Hamm is awesome, she is six months pregnant with twins in this photo and she still has time to kick it around with kids at a Soccer Clinic for Recovering Cancer Patients and Marrow Donor Drive. Go Mia...she delivered twin girls in March and I bet they are adorable.

Source

You Asked: I Am Afraid of Failure

DearSugar — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:00:00 PDT

Dear Sugar --

I am a Senior at an art school and will be getting my Bachelor's in Advertising soon. I recently entered an ad campaign for a competition and didn't make it. Everyone says that my ads are great. Truthfully, I am never satisfied with my work and feel that I have no talent. I am not sure what to do now. I've come this far in school and I am not sure if I am really good at it. I really feel that I won't be able to get a job when school's over. I try to believe in myself, but somehow I can't. I really need your advice! Thank you. ~Deterred Dana

To see DEARSUGAR's response,

read more Dear Deterred Dana -- You can't let one little setback get you down! I bet you won't meet a lot of successful people in this world that have not lost at least one competition in their lives. People who have never lost a contest probably have never entered one. We can learn a lot more from our failures than we can from our successes. Take Michael Jordan, the basketball legend, for example. He was initially cut from his high school basketball team and then went on to become a superstar. I suggest that you pick yourself up, brush yourself off and get back out there. It sounds like you have not started applying for jobs yet, so don't be so hard on yourself. Start searching the online job boards (MediaBistro.com is great for creative jobs), visit your school's career center to find out when companies will be on campus recruiting and send your resume and portfolio to companies you are interested in working for. Before you know it, you will start booking interviews and they will see all you have to offer. This will help you regain your confidence. Think positively, and I wish you good luck!

It's Not a Diet! Lose Weight With Lifestyle Changes Instead

Leta Shy — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:39:18 PST

Whenever you resolve to eat healthier or fewer calories, it can be easy to fall into the diet trap - thinking that you just have to power through for a few weeks eating only lettuce in order to meet your weight goals. But instead of dreading the idea of healthy eating, think of your new goals as a lifestyle change, not a diet, with these tips.

Get creative in the kitchen: When you've resigned yourself to eating the same healthy thing over and over again, you can get bored with your meals pretty easily. If you're apprehensive about trying a new healthy food or you just don't know where to start when it comes to making a healthy meal plan, check out our delicious healthy recipes index for endless ideas.

Don't use ultimatums: Crash dieting sets you up for failure; a better solution is to think of your new eating initiatives as something sustainable. That means that while you may have to cut back on your daily doughnut habit, you shouldn't deprive yourself of your favorite unhealthy foods forever. Have a cheat day or have treat or two, mindfully, so you'll be more apt to stick to your new eating plan.

More tips for staying away from the "diet" mentality after the break.

What to Expect When You're Expecting Set Visit: Elizabeth Banks on Her Fake Bump and Personal Baby Joy

Becky Kirsch — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:05:11 PST

Some of the biggest names in Hollywood will share the big screen in the upcoming comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting, which follows different mothers-to-be as they prepare for the arrivals of their bundles of joy. Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, and Elizabeth Banks are among the famous ladies who strapped on fake baby bumps to portray different kinds of pregnant women, and Banks's character, Wendy, doesn't exactly have an easy time of it.

I visited the Atlanta set of the film last year, where Banks was shooting a climactic scene in which her character addresses all the woes of pregnancy - in an auditorium with a rather large audience. The hilarious meltdown, which you can see in the opening of the trailer for What to Expect When You're Expecting, includes harsh truths like "I'm calling it: pregnancy sucks." It was great fun to see Banks film the passionate speech again and again, especially since the funny lady mixed up her one-liners from one take to another. What was even more interesting was seeing all of the extras who played the audience members, since the group of women was a mix of actual pregnant women and women rocking fake baby bumps.

I chatted with Banks about her own experience filming the movie, and she revealed that she actually felt like she was in her own little movie, since she doesn't have much screen time with her costars. Banks was refreshingly honest about not having any parenting tips and also admitted that though welcoming her son, Felix, has brought her a great deal of joy, it hasn't changed her stance on how she feels about kids in general. Here's more of what Banks had to say about pregnancy and motherhood:

What inspired you to take this role?
Elizabeth Banks: I cried when I read the script. It has a really great ending: at the end of the movie, everybody has a baby! It really is just a very relatable story for everyone: anybody who is a parent, has considered being a parent, has a baby, whatever. It's just very universal, what happens in the film. We really explore so many great storylines and different paths to getting a child. I had a unique path to getting my son, so I understand how everybody's path to their child is different.

How does it feel to wear the bump?
EB: It's sweaty! [Laughs] I think it's probably a decent approximation; it weighs a good 10 lbs. The boobs weigh about 6 lbs. They are really unbelievable. It's fun. It definitely makes you sit and walk in a totally different way. As an actor, it's a great prop.

How did you change when you became a mom?
EB: I get drunk much faster and easier, and it's a big problem, so I can't go out very much. I find that I underestimated the amount of joy. I'm really learning about my capacity for joy through my son.

To see what Banks had to say about baby fever and her parenting tips, just keep reading.

Uh Oh! Watch Out For These 12 IRS Audit Red Flags

Kiplinger — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:06:09 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

The IRS audits only slightly more than 1% of all individual tax returns annually. The agency doesn't have enough personnel and resources to examine each and every tax return filed during a year. So the odds are pretty low that your return will be picked for review. And, of course, the only reason filers should worry about an audit is if they are fudging on their taxes.

However, the chances of being audited or otherwise hearing from the IRS increase depending upon various factors, including your income level, whether you omitted income, the types of deductions or losses you claimed, the business in which you're engaged and whether you own foreign assets. Math errors may draw IRS inquiry, but they'll rarely lead to a full-blown exam. Although there's no sure way to avoid an IRS audit, you should be aware of red flags that could increase your chances of drawing unwanted attention from the IRS.

1. Making too much money

Although the overall individual audit rate is about 1.11%, the odds increase dramatically for higher-income filers. IRS statistics show that people with incomes of $200,000 or higher had an audit rate of 3.93%, or one out of slightly more than every 25 returns. Report $1 million or more of income? There's a one-in-eight chance your return will be audited. The audit rate drops significantly for filers making less than $200,000: Only 1.02% of such returns were audited during 2011, and the vast majority of these exams were conducted by mail. We're not saying you should try to make less money - everyone wants to be a millionaire. Just understand that the more income shown on your return, the more likely it is that you'll be hearing from the IRS.

Read on for more red flags.

Let's Dish: What Was Your Biggest Recipe Failure?

Susannah Chen — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:02:44 PST

A recent article on The Kitchn titled 5 Reasons Why a Recipe Might Fail left me thinking about some of my biggest disappointments in the kitchen. One of them was many years ago when I was at a friend's house, and we decided to go a bit overboard on the baking substitutions, using applesauce instead of butter, Splenda in lieu of sugar, and baking powder rather than baking soda.

Needless to say, the end result above looked nothing like we'd anticipated. Top takeaway: be sure to know which replacements are tried and true, and don't sub in too many things at the same time! Hopefully I'm not the only one who's ever left the kitchen feeling a bit defeated. What's been your biggest recipe fail?

Details on Prince William's Latest Appointment

Allie Merriam — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:39:58 PST

Prince William named patron of a new charity - Us Weekly
Celebrate Betty White's 90th with a look back at her best roles - People
Remember when Leo was so beautiful in Romeo & Juliet? - Lainey Gossip
Carey Mulligan admits to being a drama school failure - Huffington Post
Are you keeping up with the Real Housewives of Atlanta drama? - Buddy TV
See Jon Stewart and Mario Batali get really close - The Daily Beast
Paula Deen on her Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis - TooFab
See Contraband star Kate Beckinsale's top-rated movies - Rotten Tomatoes
Find out about Zooey Deschanel's new web series! - Hollywood Reporter
Kristen Bell talks fitness and happiness in Self - Wonderwall
Nick Cannon explains all about his health problems - Lifeline Live
Kim Richards says she's doing really well after rehab - Zap2It
Stacy Keibler's moving up with a new and powerful agency - Celebitchy

What Went Wrong? Fondue Not Combining

Katie Sweeney — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:44:00 PDT

There's nothing worse than a bad recipe! Over the weekend, I had a horrible time making pepper jack cheese fondue. I followed the recipe exactly, but the fondue was a soggy mess. It consisted of a bottle of beer, which was brought to a boil. It simmered with garlic and cayenne pepper for several minutes. Then, I added in a pound of grated pepper jack cheese by the handful.

However, while the cheese melted, it didn't combine with the beer. The soup-like fondue was gloppy and made me want to cry! It was a complete failure. I tried to salvage it by pouring out the excess liquid, adding in more cheese, and baking it in the oven, but in the end, that didn't really work either. Any idea what went wrong? Have you ever made fondue that didn't emulsify?

What to TiVo: Saturday

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:59:00 PST

8:00 Wipeout (repeat)
9:00 Miss America Pageant

8:00 NFL Playoff: Broncos at Patriots

8:00 Cops (new)
8:30 Cops (new)
9:00 Terra Nova (repeat)
11:00 Hell's Kitchen (repeat)

8:00 The Firm (repeat)
10:00 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (repeat)
11:30 Saturday Night Live (new, with guests Daniel Radcliffe and Lana Del Ray)