According to blogger, researcher, MIT adjunct professor Sam Ford, professional wrestling often acts as a carnival mirror to our culture, stretching and magnifying the underlying fears, prejudices and tension points amongst us. He also believes that wrestling provides all sorts of learning that corporate America should pay attention to as well. Here's his marketing-focused list of what businesses can learn from the world of professional wrestling:

1.     An Appropriate Level of Spectacle Is Crucial: In pro wrestling, steel cages are always 15 feet high. Tall competitors are nearly 7 feet tall. Crowds are always "hanging from the rafters." Wrestling shows pull out all the stops to make their shows as dramatic as possible. On the other hand, wrestling promoters can't overdo it. Case-in-point: the now defunct-World Championship Wrestling put on a live three-hour television show every week, with the announcers constantly proclaiming it was "the biggest main event in the history of the show." Eventually, nothing they did could feel special anymore. While corporate communicators may not want to be so guilty of exaggeration and hyperbole, big events should always be conducted with a dramatic flair. However, it's also crucial to save that drama for the particularly "big" moments (in the case of the WWE, big pay-per-view events like Wrestlemania) so that it will be truly effective.

2.     Humor and Charisma Always Make a Connection: Many a wrestling villain has suddenly become a hero because of his gift of gab on the microphone. Even when audiences don't want to, they often can't help but be won over. Likewise, many wrestlers pushed to be fan favorites, or "faces" in wrestling parlance, are met with silence if they don't have that natural connection. Corporate communicators have to value that human connection and cannot underestimate the importance of wit, charm and authenticity. As they say in WWE, the best performers are those who "play themselves, with the volume turned up."

3.     Create a Serialized Connection with Your Audience: With the WWE, every experience seems to be pushing to the next one. The television show promotes the pay-per-view event. The PPV pushes fans to interact through the Web site. Add in the DVDs, the video games, the magazines, the books, etc. Each experience is designed to be satisfying in and of itself, but it's always pushing the audience for deeper interaction. In short, there is no one-off campaign; the experience is most successful when the wrestling promotion focuses on developing a long-term relationship with the audience.

4.     "Shiny New Objects" Don't Last: In the "old days" of regional wrestling, big attractions like the 600-plus-pound Haystacks Calhoun would be brought into the local promotion on rare occasion. Anytime a promotion tried to use these gimmicks as a full-time draw, though, audiences quickly tired of seeing something just because it was new or different. Companies must learn the same. Sales gimmicks, bold statements and new digital platforms may gain some momentary interest, but if there's no deep thought, skill or strategy behind it, the interest will wane quickly.

5.     Your Audience Uses You as an Excuse to Build Community: Wrestling promotions thrive on a regional level by bringing local fans together as much to talk to one another as to watch the show. National wrestling promotions like WWE draw on this by encouraging fans to see themselves as a group and connect with one another. Similarly, companies have to think about how their brand and their products resonate in people's lives and act as fuel in their relationships.

6.     Your Audience Is Always Performing: My research has found that wrestling fans almost always openly indicate they know wrestling is scripted, yet many of them come to arenas to perform as if they are sports fans watching a legitimate competition. Coleridge called this element of theater "the willing suspension of disbelief." As a performer at pro wrestling shows myself, I've often been astounded by the performers in the stands, those fans who often get so into their roles that they put those of us "on stage" to shame. As brands listen to what their audiences are saying online, it's important to always be cognizant that anyone writing or speaking about your brand or your products are performing and trying to draw an audience for their own purposes.

7.     Take Every Opportunity to Listen to Your Focus Group: WWE kingpin Vince McMahon has famously said that he didn't need to conduct focus groups because he had his focus group in the arena several nights a week. While wrestling fans will widely debate just how much Vince listens to his "WWE Universe," that sentiment is crucial for brands to think about: especially in a digital age, there are more opportunities than ever to listen into what audiences are saying about your brand and the topics that are important to you.

8.     Your Audience Will Tell You What They Think: Wrestling fans aren't shy. WWE fans are famous for chanting "boring" when their attention fades even a little. Fans of Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling regularly chanted "you @%!&! up" anytime a wrestler botched his performance. Brands who have active audiences online have probably learned the hard way how often passionate customers will tell everyone around them, and the brand, what they think. The key is to understand that this feedback is crucial and, if anything, should be encouraged, if your goal is to develop a long-term and transparent relationship with your target audiences.

9.     Don't Ignore Surplus Audiences: Wrestling has alternatively been seen as programming for male children, teens and adults through the years, but its draw has always expanded well beyond the target demographic of the day. The WWE has had some success moving with cultural trends and capitalizing on a rise in female fans, Hispanic viewers or international audiences over time. Likewise, brands should never become so focused on one niche that they ignore significant new opportunities.

10.  Listening Could Lead to New Business Models: For years, wrestling fans recorded weekly television shows in their area, archived them and traded them with other fans across the country. Over time, the WWE took note of this interest and built a business model around it, buying up the archives of the wrestling promotions of yesteryear and building DVD releases and a subscription-only video-on-demand channel based on this massive backlog. The lesson for all brands is that audiences are often vocal about new products or modifications they need, and the most successful brands are the ones who listen closely to those needs and seek to address them rather than admonish or discourage innovation or modifications from their customer base.

Phase 1: people note differences, people remain focused on issues; people remain rationale and considerate; people continue to exchange ideas and don’t overprotect their positions; suspicion has not set in; people are focused on resolution. // Actions: Value individuals – don’t brush off their concerns and assume they will “get over it”; keep group direction and priorities clear; respond to complaints with fairness and justice; realize that small misunderstandings rarely go away on their own.

Phase 2: Uneasiness is present in group dynamics because of perceived unfairness or hurt; differences become accentuated as bad; language becomes generalized and more negative; people stop sharing information and begin taking sides. // Actions: Act quickly – do not take a “wait and see” posture; acknowledge the problem directly with the group or team; consider whether or not you should involve a neutral mediator.

Phase 3: Slander becomes acceptable; people take strong and entrenched positions; leaders emerge on “both sides”; either-or ultimatums are presented; structures are sabotaged or leveraged for influence. // Actions: Do not be indecisive, people will not tolerate it; get outside intervention.

“People change for their own reasons not yours.  If they don't see meaning in what's happening they will fight it tooth and nail. Some believe it's great to look at everything horrible that can happen, acknowledge it, embrace it and make sure you create a way forward that can bypass it. Some believe they should start from scratch, co-creating change so everyone creates meaning within the context of the change.” – Donna Karlin

Failure. We don't like to talk about it. But we all worry about it.

We worry about it in the present: Why am I not doing better in my career? Do my coworkers think I'm messing up? Is my boss unhappy with me?

We worry about it in the past: Why didn't I speak up at that meeting? Is it my fault I got laid off last year? What if I hadn't left that job ten years ago?

And we worry about it in the future: What if I don't get the project done on time? Will I end up without a bonus? Am I going to get fired?

But good leaders and CEOs respond differently. Faced with failure, they stay in motion. They quit bad jobs, separate from investors they conflict with, and get up off the sidewalk and go back to work.

To read the whole article, click here.

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure — or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you will find success.” - Tom Watson, the founder of IBM

1. Accept that you can’t control it. This is the place to start. We have very little control on what surrounds us. What we have is influence. Influence is a choice, a decision to impact something. Control is an absolute, and almost always outside of our grasp and capacity
2. Take a break. Distance yourself from the situation/event. A little space can do wonders for perspective.
3. Release bad energy. It is important to let go of negative emotions, otherwise they are prone to come back and haunt you in the future. This allows you to move past the emotions of the situation and approach actions with a clear head.
4. Seek help from a friend or a mentor. Bringing in other people for insight (not to grip to or get support from) can often facilitate objectivity, balance, and help you see the bigger picture.
5. Look for inspiration. Whether you look to quotes, meaningful books, or stories of successfully  overcoming hardship (personal or otherwise), finding inspiration will give you hope and release a positive mindset.
6. Analyze it. Come back and analyze the situation/event with objective 'eyes.' This will help you find good opportunities for action. Focus on outcomes (what you want to see happen) not just response.