Failing Your Way To Success

In a recent television interview Whoopie Goldberg described how she got her first one-woman show in New York: Whoopie was performing her nightclub act and director Mike Nichols was in the audience. He came backstage and offered to create a show for her in a Broadway theater. Whoopie said she didn't know if that was such a good idea; what if she were lousy? Nichols asked if she'd ever been lousy before and Whoopie replied, "Sure!" His response was, "Then it's no big deal. You'll just be lousy on Broadway."