Arts executive's key lesson: How to fail

From the New York Times interview of Francesca Zambello, director of the Glimmerglass Festival. The interview was conducted by Adam Bryant.

Q. Other broad insights you’ve gained over the course of your career?

A. You have to learn how to fail. You have to understand that in any position where you’re at the top, you will fail, and if you don’t fail, you’re probably not that good. So you have to learn how to cope with that. The more you get knocked down, the more you learn how to pick yourself up. It’s like a boxer. In your 20s, you’ll feel devastated when somebody fires you. I’ve been fired a number of times in my life and then rehired by a better company or given a better job. In a way, one of the things I respect the most about businesses is that when they fire somebody, they’re gone the next day. One of the problems you sometimes see in the arts is that they fire leaders but it drags on.