THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 22

How can the fatal fall from a tightrope by Karl Wallenda teach us to be more successful?

Subject:  Leadership - The Wallenda Factor

Event:  Karl Wallenda falls to his death in Puerto Rico, 1978

I think that at the start of a game, you're always playing to win, and then maybe if you're ahead late in the game, you start playing not to lose. The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win. -Tom Brady

On this day in 1978, the high-wire artist Karl Wallenda fell to his death while performing in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Wallenda was 73 years old and had been performing on tightropes since he was 6 years old.  

While the death of Wallenda was blamed on high winds and an improperly secured wire, Wallenda’s wife had another possible explanation:  his mindset.  She claimed that prior to his attempted tightrope walk between the towers of the Conando Plaza Hotel, he contemplated something that he had never thought about before: falling.  In his wife’s words, “. . . it seemed to me that he put all his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope.”

Based on Wallenda’s long career of successful tightrope walks rather than his final fatal fall, leadership expert Warren Bennis coined a leadership principle called the Wallenda Factor.  In his thousands of successful high-wire walks, Wallenda focused on walking across the rope with his eyes focused forward on his goal rather than looking down and contemplating thoughts of falling.  The Wallenda Factor is a mindset that focuses on strategies for success rather than on the possibility of failure (1).

There is a fine but very important line between focusing on succeeding rather than on not failing; it’s the same fine line between focusing on winning rather than not losing.  One excellent example comes from one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all time, Geno Auriemma.  Auriemma’s University of Connecticut women’s basketball team went undefeated in two straight regular seasons.  Unfortunately, both teams lost in the Final Four championship tournament.  The following year in the 2012-13 season his team lost multiple games in the regular season, which according to Auriemma gave them a better mindset going into the NCAA Championship Tournament:  “This team wasn’t burdened by being afraid to lose and was playing to win. [My past] teams 

were more afraid to lose a national championship than wanting to win a national championship” (2).

According to Warren Bennis, successful leaders don’t even have the word “failure” in their vocabularies.  Instead, they attempt to reframe failure, using terms with less harsh connotations, such as “mistake,” “glitch,” or “setback.”  That is not to say that great leaders never fail; instead, they don’t allow failure to 

take center stage.  When failure does happen, great leaders don’t let it intimidate them; instead, they put it in its proper perspective, using it as an opportunity to learn strategies for future success.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the Wallenda Factor, and how can it help people be more successful?

Challenge - Focusing Like a Laser on Success:  Research what successful people say about success.  Identify your favorite quotation on success, and explain why you like it.

Sources:

1-Goldberg, Philip.  The Babinski Reflex.  Tarcher, 1990.

2- Fournier, Julie. “Playing To Win vs. Playing Not To Lose.” Basketball Is Psychology 11 April 2019.