Leadership Lessons from Jon Bon Jovi: The 9/10 Rule

For musician Jon Bon Jovi, “Success is falling down 9 times and getting up 10.”

Musician Jon Bon Jovi is known for songs spanning decades. But he is also a leader—he received the 2017 Service to America Leadership Award from the NAB Education Foundation for his work to combat poverty and homelessness. Although it may seem his status as an American icon can make his work easier as a leader, the path has not always been easy for him. He has tried and failed many times during his successful career, and he shares this quote: “Success is falling down 9 times and getting up 10.”

As a leader, do you feel like you’re constantly falling down…and may never get up? I have—whether with individuals I could not figure out how to motivate, or with numbers I could never meet. But there is a way through those challenges, and it is perseverance. Thomas Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

This month, look at the areas of leadership you believe you could be failing or falling down—and try to get up a few more times. That might mean looking at a situation differently, asking an employee for a different perspective, or approaching the numbers from another path. Leadership is about standing tall, even if you have already been knocked down a few times. Now’s the time to get back up.