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Fortune favors failure: how setbacks can set you up for success

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FORTUNE FAVORS FAILURE:
How Setbacks Can Set You Up for Success

By Hannah Kahn

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL
FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS (SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)

May 2020

Copyright 2020 Hannah Kahn

ii
DEDICATION

This is for every dreamer, every hustler, and every go-getter who strives for success.
Embrace your failures and keep going.

iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I originally pitched the idea for this thesis in the fall of 2019, I joked that it would
be an experiment in failure trying to find successful people to interview. I am very grateful to the
eight individuals who opened up to me about the setbacks they have faced in their careers.
Thank you to the one and only Chris Harrison and his assistant Karen for setting aside
time to chat with me during a busy day of press for The Bachelor. Thank you to my classmate
Paige Smith for putting me in touch with former Miss America Kira Kazantsev Dixon. Thank
you to my high school theatre buddies Noah Robbins and Ethan Slater for sitting down with me
in New York for what turned out to be a two-man comedy show disguised as an interview.
Thank you to the radiant Ali Stroker for speaking with me over the phone and for being patient
with my technical difficulties (it wouldn’t be a thesis on failure without some failure along the
way, would it?). Thank you to my pal Ian Weinberger for taking time out of his Hamilton
performance schedule to enlighten me with his introspection. Thank you to Susan Downey for
imparting her wisdom, and to USC professor and Hollywood publicist Joy Fehily for connecting
us. Thank you to Tom Lehman for sharing his genius with me and for proposing to my best
friend Nataleigh Kohn in the same week. Thank you all for your vulnerability and your candor.
I am also indebted to the psychologists and researchers who helped me understand the
science behind failure: Dr. Crystal Lee, Dr. Perpetua Neo, and Dashun Wang and Yang Wang
from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
In my graduate school application, I wrote, “As an entertainment journalist, I would
relish the opportunity to learn from Mary Murphy, whose expertise in the field is

iv
inspiring.” What a dream, then, to have her as the chair of my thesis committee. Mary, thank you
for your mentorship and your motivation. You have pushed me to challenge myself as a
journalist, and I continue to benefit from your guidance.
Thank you to Dean Willow Bay for her leadership and advice. Thank you to Michael
Parks for admitting me into this master’s program and keeping my thesis on track. Thank you to
Lisa Pecot-Hebert and Joe Hacker for serving on my thesis committee, and to Sandy Tolan and
Sandra Hughes Kazarian for their instruction and encouragement.
Leslie Odom, Jr.’s book Failing Up changed my life. My mom sent it to me as a gift
when I was going through a rough patch, and the author’s insight resonated deeply with me.
Thank you to Leslie for empowering me to take risks and fail spectacularly.
My dear friend Cara Rifkin, a fellow theatre major at Northwestern University, also
studied specialized journalism at USC Annenberg. She inspired me to apply to this master’s
program, and I wouldn’t be here without her.
To my friends and family—Mom, Dad, Brooke and Ben—thank you for your
unconditional love and support.
Mom, you have been there for me through every stumble and setback, always believing
in me and building me up. Thank you for reframing my failures and reminding me that “you
never know what’s around the corner.” I love you.
Finally, I’m grateful for all the shows I wasn’t cast in, all the positions I wasn’t chosen
for, and all the times I was made to feel like I wasn’t good enough. Every ‘no’ led me to a ‘yes.’

v
TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii

ABSTRACT vi

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1: EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN 3
Chris Harrison, Host of The Bachelor

CHAPTER 2: MISS AMERICAN DREAMER 6
Kira Kazantsev Dixon, Miss America 2015

CHAPTER 3: BROADWAY BEST FRIENDS 9
Noah Robbins & Ethan Slater, Actors

CHAPTER 4: TAKING THE WHEEL 13
Ali Stroker, Tony Award-winning Actress

CHAPTER 5: THE MUSIC MAN 16
Ian Weinberger, Music Director of Hamilton on Broadway

CHAPTER 6: IRON WOMAN 18
Susan Downey, Producer and Co-founder of Team Downey

CHAPTER 7: CREATIVE GENIUS 20
Tom Lehman, Co-founder and CEO of Genius

CONCLUSION 22

BIBLIOGRAPHY 23

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ABSTRACT

Failure is the foundation of success.
Even the most successful individuals have encountered setbacks on their path to victory.
Television host Chris Harrison, former Miss America Kira Kazantsev Dixon, Broadway actors
Noah Robbins and Ethan Slater, Tony-winning actress Ali Stroker, Hamilton music director Ian
Weinberger, Hollywood producer Susan Downey, and Genius co-founder Tom Lehman shared the
lessons they have learned from failing. Here are their stories of rejection and resilience.

1
INTRODUCTION
“No—maybe she’s sick?”
That was my one line as a co-star on the Sherlock Holmes television show Elementary.
1
I
played a ballerina whose fellow dancer had gone missing (spoiler alert: she was not sick; she was
dead). The night my episode aired, my best friends and I gathered in my New York City living
room to watch my performance and celebrate with champagne. But even the wine couldn’t numb
the realization that suddenly dawned on me as my scene unfolded: my line had been cut. I was
completely blindsided. Shock turned to embarrassment, and embarrassment turned to
devastation.
I felt like the ultimate failure.
It was certainly not the first time I had experienced disappointment as an actor—that’s
show business for you. Rejection is the norm. I didn’t even hear ‘no’ after an audition; I just
heard nothing. I had to wait in the nerve-racking, endless void, hoping that at some point I’d get
a call from my agent about a callback. That call rarely came.
Every rejection was a tiny puncture that pricked my self-esteem. One by one, I could
handle the pain, but over time, the collective wound grew deeper. So deep that I questioned
whether I should continue suffering through the struggle—waiting in lines for open-calls in the
freezing cold at the crack of dawn; memorizing lines for auditions during my restaurant shifts on
the notepad that also held that day’s specials. My confidence was crumbling.
I caught the acting bug in second grade when I performed in my first musical, The Sound
of Music, in my hometown of Washington, D.C. As a child with boundless energy and

1
Elementary, season 2, episode 15, “Corpse de Ballet,” directed by Jean de Segonzac, written by Liz Friedman,
featuring Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller, aired February 6, 2014, on CBS,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B01BM7JTXS/ref=atv_dl_rdr.

2
imagination, theatre offered me a creative outlet of expression. I have always loved to entertain,
putting on plays with my cousins at family reunions and signing up for talent shows at summer
camp. When I was 12, an artist drew me winning an Oscar for Best Actress, immortalizing my
future aspiration. That caricature still hangs in my bedroom in my parents’ house.
As a fraternal twin, I’ve been part of a duo since birth. Acting gave me the platform of
individuality that I craved. In my elementary school production of The Wizard of Oz, I played
Dorothy and my twin sister played Glinda, arguably the peak of our theatrical careers. But while
I chose to study theatre in college, in the hopes of turning my hobby into my profession, my
brilliant sister Brooke went down a different path. After teaching Pre-K through Teach for
America and working at an education tech start-up, she went to law school and is now an
associate at a corporate law firm in D.C., applying her analytical prowess to data privacy. She
has found the stability and satisfaction that I was—and still am—longing for.
I ultimately decided to ditch the plan I had so carefully mapped out for myself and pursue
a new career in entertainment news in Los Angeles. Abandoning acting felt like the biggest
failure of all, but the fulfillment that followed healed my temporary loss. And by letting go of
one dream, I ended up discovering my true passion.
Failure is the foundation of success.
I spoke with successful people in creative industries—some of whom are friends of mine
and some of whom I’ve admired from afar—about their experiences dealing with setbacks. They
shared moments of rejection and resilience from all stages of their careers, along with the
wisdom they have gained from their journeys. I hope to inspire others with their stories.
You are not alone in your failure.

3
CHAPTER 1
EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN
Chris Harrison, Host of The Bachelor

It’s a familiar refrain to any fan of The Bachelor: “This is the final rose tonight. When
you’re ready.” As the host of the popular romance reality show, it is Chris Harrison’s job to warn
contestants of the looming rejection at the end of rose ceremonies. But Harrison has his own
signature saying when it comes to the risk of failure: “I’ve always lived by the moniker, what
would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” he said.
2
“I really believe that you
cannot fail. Yeah, there’s going to be setbacks. Yeah, you’re going to strike out. But I never
really see that as a failure. I’ve never seen any of those setbacks as anything that will be
debilitating.”
A lifelong athlete, the fit 48-year-old Harrison has always savored the prospect of losing
both on and off the field. “I love the opportunity to fail. I love it when it’s on the line, and you’re
nervous; you’re scared; you’re walking that tightrope without a net,” he said. “Anything could go
wrong. It’s kind of that live TV feeling that I love so much. I’ve always relished that, and I think
more people should lean into that rather than be intimidated or scared by those moments. I tell
my kids: if you’re not scared, why are you doing it? If it doesn’t get your blood pumping and
you’re not passionate about it, what are you doing it for?”
Harrison was there for me at a moment when my blood wasn’t quite pumping. I once
interviewed the charming host for Extra at a summer press event for Bachelor in Paradise. It
was a scorching hot day—the temperature was over 100 degrees—and we were in the basement
of a studio with no air conditioning. A few minutes into our on-camera conversation, I started to
feel faint. When I told Harrison that I thought I was going to pass out, he called over a medic to
nurse me back to health. And when I finally felt well enough to continue the interview, Harrison

2
Chris Harrison, phone interview, December 16, 2019.

4
lightened the mood by playfully powdering my flushed face. He transformed my failure into
success.
In addition to hosting The Bachelor and its spinoff shows since the franchise first aired in
2002, Harrison has also been the host of the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The
Miss America Pageant.
3
No stranger to success, the television star knows firsthand that even
champions experience defeat. “The strongest people in the world—the best athletes, the best
politicians, the best inventors of our time—all have great stories of failure. Everybody,” said
Harrison. “Nobody cruises through life and goes straight to the top and has this steady success
story.”
“A person who has never failed will never succeed,” said Dr. Perpetua Neo, an executive
coach and psychologist for high performers.
4
“You have to keep experimenting putting yourself
out there. You have to keep getting rejected.”
When Harrison first moved from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles for a job as a
sportscaster in horse racing, one audition in particular taught him to bet on himself. “I got so
psyched out that I really choked when I came back to the callback,” said Harrison. “I got in my
own head, and I really blew it. I remember I was so mad when I was leaving the audition. I just
promised myself never again—I am never again going to get in my own way and ruin it.
Conversely, there’s an incident where I was uber confident, guaranteed I was getting the job, and
I didn’t get the job. And it wasn’t even that long ago when this happened, but I never saw that as
a failure. I gave it everything I could. I controlled everything I could, and the rest, stuff
happens.”

3
“Chris Harrison: Host Biography,” The Bachelor, ABC, updated 2020, https://abc.com/shows/the-
bachelor/cast/chris-harrison.
4
Dr. Perpetua Neo, phone interview, February 9, 2020.

5
According to Dr. Neo, some people treat failure as an opportunity to grow stronger.
“They just don’t give up,” she said. “They use that as leverage for growth, rocket fuel.”
Harrison’s resilience has helped him soar to new heights in the entertainment industry.
“I feel like I am the luckiest guy in the world,” Harrison said. “I get to do what I love
every day and make it better and try to be better. Don’t let people tell you that your passion can’t
be a job. I had so many people tell me, ‘You can’t do that. Nobody really makes it.’ Well,
somebody has to make it—why not you?”

“Life is full of challenges. Life is not meant to be easy. I have so many
opportunities and so many moments in my life that I can look back on and think,
you know what, that was a really hard time, but that’s when I grew the most.”
– Abby Wambach, Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion
5

5
Shine On with Reese, season 1, episode 6, “Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach,” produced by Hello Sunshine,
featuring Reese Witherspoon, aired August 14, 2018, on DIRECTV, https://www.netflix.com/title/81169914.

6
CHAPTER 2
MISS AMERICAN DREAMER
Kira Kazantsev Dixon, Miss America 2015

“Everybody thinks that you’re Miss America and then the whole world opens up for you,
and that’s really not the case,” said former Miss New York Kira Kazantsev Dixon.
6
Although
winning the Miss America competition in 2015 was quite literally a crowning achievement,
Dixon struggled to maintain that success once her reign ended.
The former Miss America knows all about the American dream. Her parents emigrated
from Russia and “created a life here out of nothing,” Dixon said. “I have always had this very
‘no is not an option’ outlook on life. I grew up seeing them struggle and seeing what they’ve
been able to achieve, so I try to live my life in that grand scheme of things.” Having once aspired
to work in international diplomacy, Dixon decided to pursue a career in entertainment news
instead. And yet, even after hosting a digital red-carpet show for Dick Clark Productions, Dixon
faced rejection in the broadcast industry. “My agent would send me out to every general meeting
there ever was,” she said. “Once, I left a general and I went to the bathroom, and on the way out,
I heard them Googling me and talking about me negatively, and I ran out crying.”
The former Miss America had a “crisis moment,” followed by six months of not booking
any jobs. In that period of unemployment, Dixon essentially lived off of her savings—she had
invested her Miss America salary and had also received a big tax refund that year.
7
Sustaining a
career in show business is an uphill battle. Only two percent of actors make a living from the
profession, according to a 2019 study by the Queen Mary University of London.
8
In the field of
acting for film and television, the unemployment rate hovers around 90 percent.

6
Kira Kazantsev Dixon, phone interview, January 19, 2020.
7
Kira Kazantsev Dixon, phone interview, March 21, 2020.
8
Oliver E. Williams, Lucas Lacasa, and Vito Latora, “Quantifying and predicting success in show business,”
Nature Communications 10, no. 2256 (June 4, 2019), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10213-0.

7
Dixon eventually turned her passion for golf into a career in sports media. After hosting
the 2018 U.S. Open live show for the USGA, she started working for the Golf Channel as a
contributor. Dixon has been a field reporter for Morning Drive and is currently the host of Golf
Advisor Living and Golf Advisor Round Trip.
But the former pageant queen still experiences “a roller coaster of emotions constantly.”
Before her on-air career took off, Dixon applied to two business schools and was not accepted
into either of the programs she had hoped to get in to. “I just go through three months of
everything’s awesome, to three months of completely doubting every one of my choices,” Dixon
said.
Through the ups and downs, Dixon has developed a thick skin that is sturdier—and more
practical—than any diamond-encrusted crown. “If you never have failure, there’s no opportunity
to develop grit,” said Dr. Crystal Lee, a clinical psychologist with a specialty in “failure to
launch.”
9
“Without the opportunity to learn and develop those muscles of grit, there’s no
resilience.”
As for how Dixon feels about failure now? “I just don’t care that much,” she said. “Of
course I care, but I don’t take it as personally anymore. It’s just the nature of the business.”
Dixon seems to be channeling the fearless energy she felt at the 2015 Miss America
pageant. The odds were stacked against her: no state’s representatives had ever won the
competition three years in a row, so it was statistically unlikely that another Miss New York
would take home the crown. “Knowing that that was my future meant that I had the freedom to
do whatever I wanted,” Dixon said. So she chose an “offbeat talent,” performing a mash-up of
the “Cups” song from Pitch Perfect and “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, while sitting cross-
legged barefoot at the edge of the stage.

9
Dr. Crystal Lee, phone interview, January 30, 2020.

8
And then she won, against all odds.
“I guess that it’s okay not to have the answers and to know exactly where you’re going,”
Dixon said. “I’m still kind of every day trying to figure it out. Being okay with the unknown has
been my biggest lesson.”

“When I first started as an actor, I went on an audition for a part that I wanted
more than ANYTHING…one day my agent called and said, ‘You didn’t get the
part.’ Oh boy, did I cry. Ugly tears. For 3 whole days. What I didn’t know then
was: rejection teaches you perseverance and how to get tough.”
– Reese Witherspoon, Oscar-winning actress
10

10
Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon), Instagram photo, September 3, 2019,
https://www.instagram.com/p/B19OJDEgFuZ/?igshid=12htna9d0egux.

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CHAPTER 3
BROADWAY BEST FRIENDS
Noah Robbins & Ethan Slater, Actors

In 2009, a revival of the Neil Simon comedy Brighton Beach Memoirs closed a week
after opening on Broadway. Shows are rarely shuttered that quickly. The New York Times called
it “one of the biggest commercial flops on Broadway in recent memory.”
11
The infamous
musical Carrie opened on Broadway in 1988 and closed three days later, slaughtered by critics in
the same manner that a pig was slaughtered on stage. Brighton Beach Memoirs, on the other
hand, received glowing reviews but lacked star power to sell tickets. Noah Robbins, a friend of
mine from high school, played one of the lead roles in the production. It was his Broadway
debut. And “it was heartbreaking,” he said.
12

“I think it was so formative an experience that as much as I every day wish it hadn’t
closed, I’m also every day so thankful that something like that happened to me early on,” said
Robbins. “I think that it was like a crash course in the best and worst possible things that could
happen to you as an actor. It was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and I think it gave
me a fully well-rounded view of the entire terrain of what it is to be an actor: there’s everything
and then there’s nothing.”
Brighton Beach Memoirs director David Cromer shared helpful career advice with
Robbins long before the show even closed. “He would always be like, ‘Just so you know, if you
don’t become a movie star from this, and you probably won’t, you didn’t do anything wrong,’”
Robbins said. “It was just the nature of the game that he had prepped me for. On opening night, I
remember him saying, ‘You know it’s not always going to be like this, right?’ He was being like,
I’m going to tell you now, in the thick of it, to brace yourself.”

11
Patrick Healy, “Neil Simon Flop May Be a Case of the Missing ‘Wow,’” New York Times, November 1, 2009,
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/theater/02simon.html.
12
Noah Robbins, personal interview, January 3, 2020.

10
Robbins has since gone on to find success both on stage and on screen, appearing on
Broadway once again in 2011 in the revival of Arcadia, guest starring on the television shows
Younger and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and acting in such films as Set It Up and Miss Sloane
starring Jessica Chastain. Failure can breed success, according to a 2019 study from
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
13
Scientists who narrowly missed
out on grant funding from the National Institute of Health ended up publishing more hit papers
later in their careers than the scientists who narrowly received the grant. Kellogg Associate
Professor Dashun Wang said, “The study finds empirical evidence that early setbacks lead to
success.”
14

The failure he experienced at 19 helped prepare Robbins for future letdowns. “I think
whatever second skin you build up from early disappointment keeps you in very good stead
when it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “A good thing didn’t happen, but nothing got worse.” Dr.
Lee encourages her clients to practice failing in order to develop an “immunity for failure.” She
said, “As people are growing up, they need those opportunities to fail, to pick themselves up, to
learn how to problem solve.”
Robbins advises other actors not to wrap their identity around their profession. “Try to
have a life that you like outside of it, and try to like yourself outside of it, because then it will
have far less of an impact—the disappointment, the downtime,” he said. “The more that you can
have a snow globe of life that is entirely your own and not affected by the ups and downs of
whatever is happening is helpful.”
Ethan Slater is also a Broadway veteran and Robbins’s best friend. We all performed
theatre together at Georgetown Day School—the year after I graduated, they played Bialystock

13
Yang Wang, Benjamin F. Jones, and Dashun Wang, “Early-career setback and future career impact,” Nature
Communications 10, no. 4431 (October 1, 2019), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12189-3.
14
Dashun Wang, phone interview, February 28, 2020.

11
and Bloom in a production of The Producers. When Slater was 25, he made his Broadway debut
starring in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical as the titular character.
In 2018, Slater earned a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading
Role in a Musical, one of the highest honors in the theatre community. The Tony went to Tony
Shalhoub, the Emmy-winning star of Monk and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (“The first thing my
dad said to me at the Tonys [was], ‘Well, at least you lost to my favorite actor,’” joked Slater
15
).
Losing felt less painful once Slater realized that winning doesn’t detract from other strong
performances. “It’s an amazingly special thing to win a Tony, but to be nominated and not win
doesn’t feel so bad,” he said with his gap-toothed grin.
Even with a Tony nomination under his belt, Slater found that failure can follow success.
“After SpongeBob ended, I booked work pretty consistently for three months,” he said. “And
then I spent over a year and didn’t book a single job off of an audition, and I probably auditioned
sixty times.” An actor’s career ebbs and flows. “Riding those waves is good as long as you have
your surfboard underneath you,” said Slater, “because otherwise you’ll drown.”
But Slater does not feel defined by his setbacks. “I think that the big thing is that your life
is significantly more than the sum of your failures.” It was his friend, Tony-winning actor Ben
Platt, who encouraged Slater to embrace his errors. “‘No matter what people tell you, you’re
going to make mistakes,’” Slater said, quoting Platt, “‘and those mistakes are going to inform the
way that you live the rest of your life.’”

15
Ethan Slater, personal interview, January 3, 2020.

12

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.”
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2.7.139-140)

Consciously or not, humans perform in everyday life, depending on the audience and setting. A
job interview is the average person’s audition. In both scenarios, rejection is a possible outcome.
Famous actors are often put on pedestals because of their talent, wealth or celebrity, but their
failures are magnified along with their successes.

“Spectacular failure is the secret ingredient to your ultimate success. You will
learn and grow from the former at a rate far greater than the latter.”
– Leslie Odom, Jr., Tony-winning and Grammy-winning actor
16

16
Leslie Odom, Jr., Failing Up (New York: Feiwell and Friends, 2018), 11.

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CHAPTER 4
TAKING THE WHEEL
Ali Stroker, Tony Award-winning Actress

Ali Stroker doesn’t believe in failure. In 2019, the actress became the first person who
uses a wheelchair to win a Tony award for her performance as Ado Annie in the Broadway
revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!. “This award is for every kid who is
watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge,” she said as she
accepted her award in a sunny yellow dress.
17
It was a triumphant moment in theatre history.
Stroker was in a car accident when she was two years old that left her paralyzed from the
chest down.
18
The car that she was riding in swerved around a pile of autumn leaves and crashed
into another vehicle. Stroker suffered a permanent spinal cord injury and her brother suffered a
traumatic brain injury. After six months at the Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Jersey,
she went home with her new wheelchair.
19

“What people have seen my whole life is the way that I handle my challenge,” the actress
said.
20
“I don’t get to hide my challenge or my limitation or my insecurity, so therefore I have
chosen to love it, but it took years and years and years, because for a long time I just wanted to
be like everyone else.”
Theatre has allowed the Broadway star to embrace her “challenge.” And a backyard
production of Annie at age 7 changed Stroker’s life—the spotlight was on her abilities rather than
her disability. “When I was performing on stage, I was getting a different kind of attention than I
was in the real world,” she said. “That’s where I realized where I could be really powerful, and

17
“Ali Stroker becomes first actress who uses wheelchair to win Tony,” ABC News, June 10, 2019, YouTube video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxwogVt6yZo.
18
Michael Paulson, “Ali Stroker on Winning the Tony: ‘I Was Meant to Be in This Seat,’” New York Times, June
12, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/theater/ali-stroker-oklahoma-tony.html.
19
“Ali Stroker: From Children’s Specialized to Broadway,” Children’s Specialized Hospital, updated 2020,
https://www.childrens-specialized.org/about-us/meet-our-families/ali-stroker.

20
Ali Stroker, phone interview, February 4, 2020.

14
my voice was my way into expressing everything that was going on for me, and it’s where I
didn’t feel any limitations. My voice is where I can run and jump and skip and fly and do all the
things that I can’t do with my body, and so I found that freedom there.”
Stroker’s big voice led to her big break. “I really wanted to be on Glee,” she said. “I
didn’t get on Glee, but I got on The Glee Project. Not only was I able to perform, I was able to
tell my story.” And once she wowed the creative team of the reality show competition, The Glee
Project season two runner-up landed a guest spot on Glee.
“I feel like it’s been a gift to be given these challenges so young, so in some way it’s like
an advantage,” Stroker said. “Now I have different challenges that don’t have to do with my
chair.” One such challenge? Adjusting her outlook on rejection. “I still feel to this day like I’m
always vulnerable to rejection, but I also feel like you can’t base your worth around that,” she
said.
Giving up has never been an option for Stroker. “You can’t give up,” she said. “There are
doors that are always going to be closed for me—I’m not paying attention. I don’t feel like I’ve
been cheated or dismissed, but I also have not run away.”
Although Stroker never set out to inspire others, she is trying to shift society’s
perspective regarding her disability. And while she recognizes the power of her voice, she
believes that the most productive way to create change is “by doing, not by talking.” “Living
your truth and being out in society and owning who you are makes a huge impact,” said Stroker.
“Not apologizing for who you are, not hiding, not shrinking, not dimming your light. Being all of
you, and then finding what you love and pursuing that, and if you do have limitations, doing it
your own way.”
Stroker has taken her limitations and turned them into opportunities.

15
“I think that life is so beautiful in that when you are at the top of the mountain, you get to
be there, and then you get to be at other parts of the mountain,” said Stroker. “And I continue to
trust that every part of the mountain is equally as important and beautiful and precious, because
life is.” To quote another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, “Climb every
mountain; ford every stream; follow every rainbow ‘til you find your dream.”
21

“It took me 30 years to get to where I am now in my career. There were many
times where I felt like giving up, but I picked myself up and kept going. Your gift
will make room for you and you must be patient…I am living proof.”
– Billy Porter, Tony-winning, Emmy-winning and Grammy-winning actor
22

21
“Climb Every Mountain,” by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers, The Sound of Music, 1959.
22
Billy Porter (@theebillyporter), Instagram photo, January 15, 2020,
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WM9X4FqTr/?igshid=1dj08jujpa7xp.

16
CHAPTER 5
THE MUSIC MAN
Ian Weinberger, Music Director of Hamilton on Broadway

Five years after its debut, Hamilton is still the hottest ticket on Broadway. Audiences
flock to New York to behold the musical that has revolutionized the world of theatre and popular
culture at large. For many, Hamilton is inextricably linked to the show’s composer, lyricist and
original star Lin-Manuel Miranda. But sitting behind the piano in the orchestra pit of the Richard
Rodgers Theatre is another virtuoso whose job it is to maintain the musical integrity of the Tony-
winning smash: Ian Weinberger, Hamilton’s newly appointed music director.
“I think what Hamilton taught me is that it’s never done,” said Weinberger.
23
“The piece
is written, and the words are the words, but part of my job as music director is to keep making it
better every day and to keep trying to achieve what is the impossible goal of a perfect-sounding
show. If we get a little closer every day, that’s a victory.”
I’ve known Weinberger since my first quarter of college at Northwestern University.
When I was cast in a production of Parade my sophomore year, I was lucky enough to
experience his music direction up close. Patient, talented, and kind, he made his expertise look
effortless. Our company thrived under his leadership.
Weinberger has learned from his own musical mentors, including Hamilton’s original
music director and conductor Alex Lacamoire. “There would be moments when I would watch
him mess up at the keyboard,” said Weinberger, “and what that taught me was that, yes, it’s all
important and we have to get it right, and we’ve got to try and do a great job, but of course at the
end of the day, we’re making a musical. And with Broadway especially, we have another chance
tomorrow.” That attitude served Weinberger well the first time he conducted the show with
former First Lady Michelle Obama in the audience. No pressure.

23
Ian Weinberger, personal interview, January 2, 2020.

17
While Weinberger currently holds one of the most coveted conducting positions on
Broadway, he faced roadblocks on his journey to success. “About five or six years ago, I was
waiting for the next level-up kind of job,” Weinberger said. “I wanted to be an associate
conductor of some Broadway show, and I was in the running for five jobs in a row, and they
didn’t pan out, one after the other. And I know now with retrospect is that had any of them
happened, I wouldn’t have been available when Hamilton called. And the moral to me is to wait
for your pitch because I know now that I am the right person for Hamilton. I would have been
fine at the other jobs, but they don’t fit me musically in the way that Hamilton does. I think I
grew up a lot in the Hamilton job. It turned out to be exactly the right thing for me because it has
taught me so much, and it’s made me really grow up as a musician and a leader and a person. It
turned out to really be the right gig, so I’m grateful for it.”

“I didn’t get cast in the show at school, and I thought I was an abject failure.”
– Tom Hanks, Oscar-winning actor
24

24
“Actors on Actors: Tom Hanks & Renée Zellweger (Full Conversation),” Variety, November 2019,
https://variety.com/video/actors-on-actors-tom-hanks-renee-zellweger-full-video/.

18
CHAPTER 6
IRON WOMAN
Susan Downey, Producer and Co-founder of Team Downey

Susan Downey developed a tough skin from an early age. The film producer and wife of
Robert Downey, Jr. auditioned for commercials and print work when she was younger, but she
never let rejection tarnish her self-worth. It’s that confidence that has made her a force to be
reckoned with in the entertainment industry. “I really believe that we’re all on our own version
of a heroic journey,” said Downey, “and I really feel like we can turn the struggles and pains into
lessons. And we should look to see, what can we do better next time? Where did the situation go
awry? What was my part in it?”
25
Dr. Lee echoed Downey’s message, saying, “Failure is really
just another way of saying unfinished success or an opportunity to learn.”
When asked what the biggest setback of her career has been, Downey said, “I don’t see
them as career setbacks. I do have projects that didn’t work. But with every bad decision, there’s
always some experiential good that comes from it. There’s beautiful artistry even in the biggest
flops.”
One recent project that didn’t quite work at the box office is the movie Doolittle that was
produced by Team Downey, the production company run by Downey and Downey, Jr. “I was
very proud of what film we put out there, and it connected with the audience, but the critics hated
it, and that was really, really tough,” said Downey. “And you know what you do? You don’t
pretend it’s not. You have to acknowledge that it hurts.” Downey said that she then asks herself,
“What did I learn here? Where along the way were the good lessons and the things that are going
to make you stronger, and where were the cautionary ones where you can’t do that again?”
But success is not only based on ticket sales. “It’s how you measure success,” said
Downey. “If you want to just talk about numbers, I can say, I made Sherlock, and it really

25
Susan Downey, phone interview, February 7, 2020.

19
worked. I made a second one, and we’re at a billion-dollar franchise. But then I look at a movie
like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I am so proud of. It’s one of Robert’s favorite performances of
his own. Even if it didn’t work at the box office, to me it’s successful for other things. It’s the
thing that Jon Favreau saw and decided to say, hey, Robert could play Iron Man, so that’s
successful.”
“When you’re in the arts and you’re doing something that is ultimately subjective and
then analyzed from a very objective place, it can mess with your head,” said Downey. “There are
going to be a lot of ups and downs. And so much of it is how you recover from the downs and
how you treat people when you’re up.”

“I have certainly made mistakes. I have certainly done things that I regret. But
you’ve got to pick yourself up, learn from it, learn some more, try to move
forward.”
- Ben Affleck, actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer
26

26
Brooks Barnes, “Ben Affleck Tried to Drink Away the Pain. Now He’s Trying Honesty,” New York Times,
February 18, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/movies/ben-affleck.html.

20
CHAPTER 7
CREATIVE GENIUS
Tom Lehman, Co-founder and CEO of Genius

Have you ever wondered about the meaning behind music lyrics? Enter Genius, the
digital media company that illuminates the story of a song. The platform features annotations and
analysis from the in-house creative team and community of contributors.
27
Tom Lehman is the
co-founder and CEO of Genius.
When Genius was founded in 2009, there was no guarantee that the company would take
off. “With a start-up, you don’t necessarily know if you’re actually going to end up anywhere,”
Lehman said.
28
“It’s sort of like a plane to nowhere, so there’s always some form of constant
failure, readjustment.” But as a pilot of the plane, Lehman had back-up plans in place. “When
Genius first started, it wasn’t the only thing I was working on,” he said. “I had a theory that was
basically: I want to make 20 websites, and if I can make 20 websites, one will succeed. All of
those things failed,” but Genius succeeded.
For over a decade, Lehman has navigated the unpredictable terrain of the tech industry.
But the co-founder has not allowed failure to destroy his drive. He said, “Anytime you feel like
you are on top, just know that you could take a tumble, and it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
Dr. Neo conducted a study tracking what happens when higher performers lose their jobs. “For
people who have a fighting spirit kind of mindset—a mental adjustment style—they’re able to
turn it around and reframe it,” she said. “And people who are helpless/hopeless, many years
later, they were either not in a job or they were in a really bad job.” Failure can be transformed
into a tool for growth. “You can train yourself to see things differently,” Dr. Neo said.

27
“About Genius,” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., updated 2020, https://genius.com/Genius-about-genius-
annotated.
28
Tom Lehman, personal interview, January 4, 2020.

21
“Don’t quit,” said Lehman. “Whatever it is, however long it’s taking, however bad it
seems, don’t quit. The caterpillar reaches its lowest stage of degeneration, and then it turns into a
butterfly. Anything can happen, so don’t quit.”

“8 years of touring, giving out free tix to my undersold shows, sleepless nights in
my car, hearing ‘no’ but always saying ‘yes.’ Glad I never gave up.”
- Lizzo, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter
29

29
Lizzo (@lizzobeeating), Instagram photo, November 25, 2019,
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5S9DgfhoGJ/?igshid=1he60etwjxed3.

22
CONCLUSION
In our quest to achieve success, we are often our own worst enemies. Perfectionism runs
through my veins, along with B+ blood (if I had it my way, it would be A+). I still battle my fear
of failure. But surviving setbacks has made me stronger. Rejection has pushed me to fight harder
to accomplish my goals, launching me closer towards success. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m
not giving up.
I’ve come to realize that someone else’s success is not your failure, and even the most
skilled individuals face rejection from time to time. I wish I could have imparted that wisdom to
my younger self—and yet, I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve made
and the challenges I’ve encountered.
When I co-starred on Elementary, I befriended the actress who played Dancer #1 to my
Dancer #2, Andrea Lynn Green. She recently made her Broadway debut in Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf, but the production closed after only nine preview performances due to the
coronavirus. Reaching out to express my sympathy, I stumbled upon our message exchange from
2017, when one of her scenes had been cut from another television show. “I was in such a funk
after that happened with Elementary,” I wrote. “I like to think about it as a story you can tell on a
talk show one day.”
30

After all, failure is a matter of perspective. As Dr. Neo said, “So what if a glass is half
empty? It means I can fill it up again.”

30
Facebook direct message to Andrea Lynn Green, April 3, 2017.

23
BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABC News. “Ali Stroker becomes first actress who uses wheelchair to win Tony.” June 10,
2019. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxwogVt6yZo.

Barnes, Brooks. “Ben Affleck Tried to Drink Away the Pain. Now He’s Trying Honesty.” New
York Times, February 18, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/movies/ben-
affleck.html.

Children’s Specialized Hospital. “Ali Stroker: From Children’s Specialized to Broadway.”
Updated 2020. https://www.childrens-specialized.org/about-us/meet-our-families/ali-
stroker.

de Segonzac, Jean, dir. Elementary. Season 2, episode 15, “Corpse de Ballet.” Aired February 6,
2014, on CBS. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B01BM7JTXS/ref=atv_dl_rdr.

Dixon, Kira Kazantsev. Phone interview. January 19, 2020.

Dixon, Kira Kazantsev. Phone interview. March 21, 2020.

Downey, Susan. Phone interview. February 7, 2020.

Genius. “About Genius.” Genius Media Group Inc. Updated 2020.
https://genius.com/Genius-about-genius-annotated.

Hammerstein II, Oscar, and Richard Rodgers. “Climb Every Mountain.” The Sound of Music,
1959.

Harrison, Chris. Phone interview. December 16, 2019.

Healy, Patrick. “Neil Simon Flop May Be a Case of the Missing ‘Wow.’” New York Times,
November 1, 2009. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/theater/02simon.html.

Lee, Dr. Crystal. Phone interview. January 30, 2020.

Lehman, Tom. Personal interview. January 4, 2020.

Lizzo (@lizzobeeating). 2019. Instagram photo, November 25, 2019.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5S9DgfhoGJ/?igshid=1he60etwjxed3.

Neo, Dr. Perpetua. Phone interview. February 9, 2020.

Odom, Jr., Leslie. Failing Up. New York: Feiwell and Friends, 2018.

Paulson, Michael. “Ali Stroker on Winning the Tony: ‘I Was Meant to Be in This Seat.’” New
York Times, June 12, 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/theater/ali-stroker-oklahoma-tony.html.

24
Porter, Billy (@theebillyporter). 2020. Instagram photo, January 15, 2020.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WM9X4FqTr/?igshid=1dj08jujpa7xp.

Robbins, Noah. Personal interview. January 3, 2020.

Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. New York: Dover Publications, 1963.

Shine On with Reese. Season 1, episode 6, “Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach.” Aired August 14,
2018, on DIRECTV. https://www.netflix.com/title/81169914.

Slater, Ethan. Personal interview. January 3, 2020.

Stroker, Ali. Phone interview. February 4, 2020.

The Bachelor. “Chris Harrison: Host Biography.” ABC. Updated 2020.
https://abc.com/shows/the-bachelor/cast/chris-harrison.

Variety. “Actors on Actors: Tom Hanks & Renée Zellweger (Full Conversation).” Variety
Media LLC. November 2019. Updated 2020.
https://variety.com/video/actors-on-actors-tom-hanks-renee-zellweger-full-video/.

Wang, Dashun. Phone interview. February 28, 2020.

Wang, Yang, Benjamin F. Jones, and Dashun Wang. “Early-career setback and future career
impact.” Nature Communications 10, no. 4431 (October 1, 2019).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12189-3.

Weinberger, Ian. Personal interview. January 2, 2020.

Williams, Oliver E., Lucas Lacasa, and Vito Latora. “Quantifying and predicting success in show
business.” Nature Communications 10, no. 2256 (June 4, 2019).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10213-0.

Witherspoon, Reese (@reesewitherspoon). 2019. Instagram photo, September 3, 2019.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B19OJDEgFuZ/?igshid=12htna9d0egux.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Failure is the foundation of success. Even the most successful individuals have encountered setbacks on their path to victory. Television host Chris Harrison, former Miss America Kira Kazantsev Dixon, Broadway actors Noah Robbins and Ethan Slater, Tony-winning actress Ali Stroker, Hamilton music director Ian Weinberger, Hollywood producer Susan Downey, and Genius co-founder Tom Lehman shared the lessons they have learned from failing. Here are their stories of rejection and resilience.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Kahn, Hannah (author)

Core Title Fortune favors failure: how setbacks can set you up for success

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism

Publication Date 04/27/2020

Defense Date 04/26/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Challenge,failure,grit,OAI-PMH Harvest,resilience,setback,Success

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Murphy, Mary (committee chair), Hacker, Joseph (committee member), Pecot-Hébert, Lisa (committee member)

Creator Email hannah.b.kahn@gmail.com,hkahn@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-290676

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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