Congratulations to Ben Affleck, Hollywood’s greatest failure

With Affleck’s thriller Argo winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, the actor-turned director has finally revived his troubled career in the kind of turnaround even a phoenix would envy. But Affleck’s comeback is more than just movie news. When given the chance to decry his own mistakes in an interview, Affleck embraced them; he would not have made Argo had he not first invited ridicule by starring in Gigli. The takeaway here is the same wisdom that fueled greats such as Steve Jobs: everybody makes mistakes. The key is a) having the guts to risk making a mistake in the first place, b) having the character to learn from those mistakes when they happen and c) to strive for greatness even after the sting of failure. In business, who hasn’t been there?