MasterClass CEO David Rogier spoke with hundreds of successful people, from tennis player Serena Williams to former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, to learn what sets them apart from others. Roger’s key takeaway: Some common myths about success need to be dispelled.
“I think we have this myth that if you work hard, things will work out (and you’ll be successful),” Roger says. “That’s not true.” He added that hard work, while essential, is just one of the necessary ingredients for success, along with pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, making mistakes and learning from those failures.
There’s another myth in that advice that’s worth debunking, says Roger. The idea is that we shouldn’t be afraid of failure. “I think that’s a bull—” he says.
Roger says a healthy fear of failure is what drives people to strive for success, and the key is to overcome that fear by taking the necessary risks. He says successful people tend to move forward, accepting failure as both a potential outcome and a learning opportunity. Psychologists often say this is an example of the so-called “growth mindset” that characterizes many successful people.
“People who aren’t afraid of failure are scary,” says Roger.
Don’t miss: Communication skills that can help accelerate your career growth
Roger co-founded the online education subscription program in 2015 after spending more than a year recruiting “hundreds” of prominent leaders from various industries to teach master classes, he said. More than 200 people, including athletes, actors, and entrepreneurs, have hosted classes on the platform, which was valued at $2.75 billion as of May 2021.
These leaders are often keen to learn from setbacks and seek as unbiased feedback as possible, says Roger, citing Spanx founder Sarah Blakely as an example. Blakely founded the shapewear company in 2000, and the company has grown over the past two decades, with private equity firm Blackstone acquiring a majority stake in October 2021. The deal valued Spanx at $1.2 billion.
“My father encouraged me and my brother to fail growing up,” Blakely told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in October 2013. “The gift my father gave me was that failure is when you don’t put in the effort compared to the result. That really gave me more freedom to try things and spread my wings in life.”
Blakely, who founded the shoe brand Sneaks in 2024, did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment. During the Master Class program, which launched in November 2019, she told a story about how when she was young, her father would regularly ask her at the dinner table, “What went wrong this week?”
Mr. Roget uses a similar practice to CEOs at MasterClass, where he sends weekly emails to employees asking them where the company has gone wrong recently and how they can learn and improve. He also learned the importance of advocating for himself and fostering success from the platform’s instructors, he says.
One such instructor, Jeffrey Pfeffer, a longtime professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, recommends openly promoting your accomplishments in order to advance in your career. “You’re seen by how you show up,” Pfeffer told CNBC Make It in September. “So how you show up is at least as important as what you actually do.”
Roger says the desire and ability to promote one’s accomplishments are common traits among successful people, and recommends trying to speak up and follow suit to stand out. “You can’t just do a good job and expect people to know or see it,” he says. “You have to like it all over the world (and) be good at getting people’s attention.”
Do you want to get ahead at work? Next, you need to learn how to make effective small talk. In CNBC’s new online course, “How to Talk to People at Work,” expert instructors share practical strategies for using everyday conversations to increase visibility, build meaningful relationships, and accelerate career growth. Sign up now!
