![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ohe.5c7.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/rainman1.jpg\" "\\"rainman\\"")
<\/a>I\u2019m an avid fan of the cable television program Inside the Actors Studio.<\/em> Each week, James Lipton, dean emeritus of New York\u2019s Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, interviews a famous actor or director. I love the passion with which these artists talk about their craft and the courage with which they tackle their fears and doubt. Yes, they are famous, but they are still mortals wrestling with the same insecurities as the rest of us. And the lessons they offer give a glimpse of the greatness in each of us that lies just beyond our doubt.<\/p>\nWhen Lipton interviewed Dustin Hoffman, the actor talked about the difficulty of \u201cfinding the character\u201d of autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in the movie Rainman<\/em>.\u00a0 Hoffman had researched autism, but when the filming began he still hadn\u2019t \u201cfound\u201d the character.<\/p>\n The cast and crew did three takes of an early scene followed by some improvisation. At day\u2019s end, director Barry Levinson called Hoffman over to see the improv takes. Levinson was laughing. Hoffman told James Lipton that he was convinced he\u2019d blown the day and was ready to resign. Then he viewed the takes. Raymond was responding with a terse, gutteral \u201cYeah!\u201d to every statement by his flashy brother Charley, played by Tom Cruise. Hoffman had no idea what else to do so he went with this gut reaction.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that was it, that was the place<\/em>!\u201d he exclaimed. He\u2019d found the character in an improvised moment.<\/p>\n \u201cA take,\u201d Hoffman told Lipton, \u201cis the actor\u2019s time to fail. Every art has a failure quotient\u201d and for Hoffman, having to film without finding the character put him on the verge of failing. But \u201cFailing isn\u2019t the worst,\u201d he added. \u201cPutting something out there that\u2019s safe so you don\u2019t get hurt or because it worked before\u2014that\u2019s a sin. You\u2019ve failed yourself. Put something out there that\u2019s \u2018Oooh, oooh<\/em> in that place\u2019 <\/em>with somebody. That is worth everything.\u201d<\/p>\n When he let go of the worry and fully embraced the moment,\u00a0it worked brilliantly. Yes, he was talking about film but his words apply equally well to leadership. It is a performing art. When leaders put something safe out there so they don\u2019t get hurt or because it worked before, they are failing themselves.<\/p>\n As any artist knows, the greatest challenge is learning to honor our own strengths. I find it reassuring to hear masterful artists like Dustin Hoffman confess to the small voice of insignificance and uncertainty. I find it inspiring when they choose to step into their fear rather than back away. Melanie Griffith once told Lipton that every time she starts a new movie, she\u2019s so scared she can barely recall her own name. \u201cYou do the homework,\u201d she said, \u201cand then you have to put it all aside. That\u2019s the scary part.\u201d Similarly, Tom Hanks admitted that every time he steps onto a new set, he fears that he\u2019ll be discovered as an imposter. Yet he continues to step onto new sets and deliver award-winning performances.<\/p>\n Every day we have the choice to play small or to put something out there from the core of our own being.\u00a0So the next time your gut suggests a courageous course of action and your head overrules it in an effort to play safe, think like an actor and trust your gut. Get out of your head and engage others from the heart. Invite them to bring all of who and how they are to what they do. Step through the doubt and put something out there that\u2019s \u201coooh, oooh, in that place\u201d<\/em> with someone.<\/p>\n In short, don\u2019t fail yourself. Who knows? It may lead straight to your own greatness.<\/p>\n [The above is adapted from Chapter 11 of\u00a0In Our Right Mind.]<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m an avid fan of the cable television program Inside the Actors Studio. Each week, James Lipton, dean emeritus of New York\u2019s Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, interviews a famous actor or director. I love the passion with which these artists talk about their craft and the courage with which they tackle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotion","category-leading","category-self-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions\/1134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inourrightmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"