Failures: No Risk, No Gain

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Dr. Laura Podcast

Episode: Failures: No Risk, No Gain
Host: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Release Date: August 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this insightful episode, Dr. Laura Schlessinger tackles the universal fear of failure and the importance of risk-taking as a path to genuine success. Drawing on personal anecdotes, memorable stories, and even classic Hollywood cinema, Dr. Laura emphasizes that “no risk, no gain” is an inescapable reality—failure isn’t a pitfall to be avoided, but a necessary step on the road to achievement and fulfillment. With her characteristic directness, warmth, and humor, Dr. Laura offers both motivation and practical wisdom for anyone struggling with the setbacks that come with striving for more in life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Embracing Failure as Part of Success

• Fear of Failure Restricts Life:
  Dr. Laura opens by noting that many people live constricted lives because they fear failure and therefore avoid risks.

  “No risk, no gain. That’s it. No magic here.” (03:00)

• The Splat is Inevitable:
  Using a memorable Jules Pfeiffer cartoon, Dr. Laura illustrates that pursuit of success guarantees “splats”—painful setbacks—but that success lies just beyond them:

  “It’s that way. Just a little bit past splat.” (06:26)

Personal Anecdotes and Popular Culture

• The Batman Lesson:
  Dr. Laura recalls the origin story from Batman, where his father teaches him that falls (failures) are how we learn to get up.

  “Do you know why we fall? ... So we learn how to get up.” (10:25)

• Film as Metaphor:
  She relates the story of an old black-and-white film featuring Bette Davis as a once-great actress who faces a “terminal splat”—the end of her career due to aging and changes in Hollywood.

  • The character’s inability to accept the end of her stardom and reinvent herself nearly destroys her.
  • Ultimately, she finds redemption by embracing a new, fuller life beyond career success.

Types of ‘Splats’: Setbacks and Finality

• Ordinary Splat vs. Terminal Splat:
  Dr. Laura distinguishes between setbacks that lead to growth (“ordinary splats”) and life events that are endings in themselves (“terminal splats”—for instance, aging out of a career or loss of status).
• Life Beyond Professional Identity:
  She stresses the importance of cultivating a full life—family, hobbies, relationships—so that when career or external success inevitably ends, one is not left hollow or devastated.

  “That’s why people need to have full lives, so that you have friends and family and hobbies… because some part of it is going to have a terminal splat.” (19:23)

Perseverance in the Face of Setbacks

• Persistence is the Key Differentiator:
  The true differentiator isn’t talent or luck, but the ability to persevere through adversity:

  “But it’s the people who sustain themselves through the splats, who endure, who persevere. That’s the way it’s done.” (09:24)

• Matching Negatives with Positives:
  Dr. Laura advocates for balancing negative thoughts with positive ones as a daily habit.

  “Every time you go to bed with a negative thought, you have to match it up with a positive one.” (20:18)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Success & Failure:

  “The people who ultimately succeed in life are the ones who would sustain themselves through failure.” (02:59)

• On the Path to Success:

  “Tell me which way is success. Guru did speak, raises his hand, points into the distance … and says, ‘It’s that way. Just a little bit past splat.’” (06:26)

• On Bette Davis’s Character (Terminal Splat):

  “She realizes that’s embarrassing and it is totally over… That’s the ultimate splat.” (17:31 - 19:18)

• On Having a Full Life:

  “That’s why people need to have full lives, so that you have friends and family and hobbies, things to do, traveling. That you become a full person because some part of it is going to have a terminal splat.” (19:23)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:29–03:00] – Introduction to the theme: risk, failure, and success
• [03:00–06:26] – The Jules Pfeiffer “splat” story and its lesson
• [09:11–10:27] – Discussion of the Batman origin story and life lessons from falling down
• [11:00–19:23] – Analysis of the Bette Davis film as a metaphor for terminal failure; reflection on life beyond success
• [20:18] – Advice for everyday resilience: positive self-talk

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Key Takeaways

• Failure is Unavoidable: True achievement only comes through perseverance and learning from failures—the “splats.”
• Success Is Never a Straight Line: “No risk, no gain” isn’t just a slogan—risk is necessary, and setbacks (even painful ones) are part of the process.
• Terminal Splats Exist: Sometimes chapters truly close, and reinvention is necessary. Identity should be built on multiple pillars, not just career or public validation.
• Full Lives Provide Resilience: Cultivate meaning, relationships, and varied interests to weather life’s inevitable endings.
• Attitude Matters: Balance negativity with intentional positive thinking and keep moving forward past each “splat.”

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Dr. Laura ends the episode encouraging listeners to embrace life’s challenges head-on, persevere through their “splats,” and build rich, resilient lives beyond fleeting success.

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Transcript

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

thank you for listening to my morning monologue brought to you by Golden Crest Medals. Find out how gold and silver can protect what you have worked so hard to build. Visit goldencrestmetals.com DrLora Remember, you can hear my radio program daily on Sirius XM Triumph and connect with me 24 [e-mail] today we're talking about failure. I know so many people whose lives are constricted by the fact that they won't take risks because they wish to avoid failure. No risk, no gain. Doesn't rhyme. Who cares? No risk, no gain. That's it. No magic here. The people who ultimately succeed in life are the ones who would sustain themselves through failure. Failure is inevitable. If you take risks, hide under the bed for the rest of your life. No risks. You won't have failure. Of course, I think your whole life is a failure. But you won't experience anything sort of concrete. Somebody can point a finger at you and go he he. Failure. There was a Jules Pfeiffer used to do a cartoon. There's always a series. Well, not just one frame. There'd be like number of frames. And I always looked at his columns, always never remembered any of them except one, which I've used at least two dozen times in 40 years to make this point. And when I did my one woman show, I always presented this concept. And it's a little takeoff from what he did. So this man wants to know which way is success. Figures it must just be a simple path. Just show me the simple path. Make my life easy, please. So. So he decides to go to Tibet, climbs up the mountain. Guru is sitting there in a cave, and he says to the guru in the cave, which way is success? Guru raises one hand, points off to the distance. The guy goes in that direction, and all you see in the next frame is splat. You see him coming back to Tibet to go up the mountain, to ask the guru again, because he figures he must have taken a wrong turn, must not have gotten the GPS coordinates right, whatever. And he's staggering a bit because splat hurt. So he gets up the mountain and there he is with the guru again, a little aggravated, but trying to show respect. Please show me the way to success. Guru raises one arm and fingers come out of the sleeve and he points in a direction. And the guy goes, okay, I'll do this again. Off he goes. And what do you see in the next frame? Splat. Crawls back, his clothes are tattered, he's beaten up and filthy. He's really a wreck and he's pissed. Climbs up that mountain, gets into the cave with the guru, says, cut the crap this time. Talk. Don't give me this Guru silent stuff. I want to hear. You told me to go that way and all I got was splat. Told me to go that way. Again, all I got was splat. Tell me which way is success. Guru did speak, raises his hand, points into the distance, by the way, the same direction, and says, it's that way. Just a little bit past splat.

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Be home with the pork. You have the opportunity to make this

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

I remember vividly the moment I read that because I thought how incredibly brilliant and wise. Can't get to success, can't get to happiness, can't get to anything without splats. That's just reality. That's just life. It's nothing about you doesn't designate you as stupid, weak or incompetent or untalented. But it's the people who sustain themselves through the splats who endure, who persevere. That's the way it's done. In one of the Batman movies, they show the origin of how Batman becomes Batman. He falls as a kid, he falls into this well, I think it was a well. And the bats go crazy. And they were in the well and kid is freaked out and they haul him out of the well and his dad is carrying him into the house. And the kid's just totally freaked out to become eventually Batman. And his father says, do you know why we fall?

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

So we learn how to get up. All these brilliant pictures in your mind are the truth. Success is past splat. And then sometimes you hit success and more splats happen. And then you have to persevere to sustain the splat. Now this is whether you're working on an invention, whether you're working on your education, whether you're working on losing weight, whether you're working on getting ready to do the Tour de France. Doesn't matter what it is, they're going to be splats. Now, something I'm going to throw in that I don't normally mention when I talk about this concept. Sometimes there are terminal splats where the success is over. So the other night I found this new channel called Filmstruck. And tcm, Turner Classic Movies evidently owns it. And that's where they put a lot of the older classic Hollywood movies, which I love. It's a black and white film. I'll probably love it because they put more effort and the photography is amazing on black and white films because they don't have the color and to create the atmosphere, the angles, the lighting. I just think it's amazing. Anyway, so I watched an old movie with Betty Davis and she was middle aged and seriously looked it. Brilliant actress, but didn't age that well. But in those days they didn't work out and, you know, they didn't have facial surgery every 25 minutes like the actresses now have. I just love when I see their actresses who are about three years younger than me, doing a commercial for some makeup or hair thing. And their faces look like a baby's butt. A newborn baby's butt. I mean, come on. There's just so much lighting and makeup that'll do that. The rest of it is you got it hauled back with paperclips, you know, come on. Any which way this movie was about that. The terminal splat. Evidently she was a huge major, major, major, major, major movie star. And then she got older and Hollywood being what it was at the time, you lost being pretty. You can become a character actress maybe, but you weren't a star anymore. And so she's not a star anymore. And for three years she hasn't been a star anymore. And she had gotten married and got her husband into the movies in cowboy movies and he did very great and he left her, married somebody else, made a bunch of kids. She had a kid with him and she was now bankrupt because she was supporting her idiot sister with the bummy brother in law. And you know, she just had more money than anything and spent it on all kinds of things and took care of people. Wasn't entirely selfish about it, but she lived the life of the queen of the movies with the jewelry and the cars and the clothes and then it just stopped splat. She couldn't get herself sold. So this younger man, Sterling Hayden, gorgeous dude, he has also since passed in real life, she had done him a favor one time and he never forgot that. And he owns a boatyard now. And interestingly enough, Sterling Hayden in real life was in the Navy and got a silver star, bronze star, some kind of star and all kinds of awards in the war. And he was an amazing sailor. I'm sorry, I didn't know him now, you know, because he'd be cool to sail with because he sailed schooners around the world. I mean, I would love to learn from somebody who had that experience. But anyway, she gets thrown in the drunk tank one night because she's so upset over the fact that she can't be a star anymore that she and kids are ragging on her daughter, making her embarrassed. And she drinks too much and puts the car in a ditch and doesn't get hurt. They put her in the drunk tank and he gets her out. She keeps asking him, why are you doing this? And he gets her out and he tries to help her and there are some segments of her trying to put a life together and. And she just can't give up being a star. So she goes to her agent, drags him to the head producer of the lot and there's this movie. She wanted to have the lead, but the lead's like 25, she's middle aged and it's not going to fly. But there's an older frumpy sister and they were going to pump up the role a little bit for her. So she does a screen test for it and they give her frumpy clothes and frumpy hairdo and frumpy makeup. And before she goes on the set she fixes the makeup, she makes her hair all pretty, she makes the dress look sexy and she comes out during and she does the take flirtatiously and embarrassingly badly because she figures if she looks sexy and cute enough they might give her the starring lead. I mean she's so delusional at this point. So everybody is supposed to look at it the next day. She's nasty to the director who says this woman is not supposed to be flirtatious. She's supposed to be sort of dour and depressed. I know how to do this role. She was just being the arrogant star. She looks at the daily before anybody else does. Throws herself on the ground crying because she realizes that's embarrassing and it is totally over. So her agent takes her to his home and his wife drags her upstairs to put her to bed to give her a nap. And they had a big party. All kinds of Hollywood people at this party. Meanwhile, the young guy, Sterling Hayden is, she keeps asking why did he hide he had fallen in love with her. But she was so self centered, so into her career that there was no place for a human being, not even for her to be a good mother. And so he kind of gave up. But now he's trying to take care of her and her daughter. And he's a nice guy, a lot younger and he's a nice guy. Okay. He's also about six' six, darling Hayden, and she's shorter than I am. It was kind of weird. But anyway, so she wakes up, she comes downstairs to the party, she's smoking a cigarette, she has a drink in her hand and she totally doesn't know what to do with herself. I think potentially suicidal at that point. And then a producer comes over to her and her agent says, I got a picture. I think I would like you to look at the script. I'd really like you to do my picture. Okay, I'll listen to it. It's about a star who doesn't understand when it's over. And since she made her whole life, it's like Sunset Boulevard. Since she made her whole life about being a big star, she wasn't even a woman, much less a mother. And a wife. And he's just. But that is his movie. I mean, he's not just razzing her and she's sitting there looking at him, looking aside and realizing, oh, shit, he's talking about me. But when it got to the part she wasn't even a woman. That was it. She's up, she gets in the car, she just takes whatever car that had a key in it. Off she goes to where her daughter is with the dad, has the daughter come, they go rushing in to Sterling Hayden's place, she rushes into his arms and she's now going to be a woman, a wife and a mother and give it up. Now, some people who become big stars, as you've read, can't tolerate the splat and kill themselves, either slowly or quickly. Drugs, drinking, promiscuity, nonsense. She got saved by somebody who wanted her to do a role. That was her. I mean, it's a movie. I get that it had a happy ending, which I like, but that's the ultimate splat. When you finally get the success, you have it, you enjoy it, you're there, it's gone. What is success after that? That's why people need to have full lives, so that you have friends and family and hobbies, things to do, traveling. That you become a full person because some part of it is going to have a terminal splat. 1-800-375-2872 if you like this podcast, be sure to rate it on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen to my podcast. Of course, I'd love if you gave me five stars. And be sure to share this podcast with a friend on Facebook or your preferred social media platform. Sirius XM triumphs. Is life presenting you with challenges?

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Call 1-800- Dr. Laura. No nonsense advice about relationships, marriage, kids, tough love. It happened is not a phrase anybody uses when they take responsibility.

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Inspiration.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Every time you go to bed with a negative thought, you have to match it up with a positive one.

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That's your new rule, Dr. Laura.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Weekdays at 2pm east on Sirius XM Triumph 123 and on the Sirius XM app.

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