Learning From Your Mistakes
Making Mistakes
We all make mistakes every day. A very astute mentor of mine once said to me “If I get 51% of my decisions right today then I will have done outstandingly well”. So if even the best of us are getting so many things wrong how come some people seem to soar when it comes to achievement? How come there are those people out there that seem to go from success to success?
The difference between most people who make mistakes and a compound improver is the ability to take what they learned from that mistake and put it to good use.
What people usually do when making a mistake
When most people make a big mistake they tend to do one of these things: -
1. Come up with a hundred excuses as to why things didn’t work out and never take responsibility for their own mistakes. Excuses like it wasn’t my fault my business went down the tubes it was my customers not paying me, or the tax man taking too big a bite, or I had a great product but the banks wouldn’t finance it.
2. Tell people they tried that once and it was rubbish. You know the type, they are the people who tried to set up a network marketing company once, but at the end of the month they didn’t achieve all that was promised so they gave up. There are thousands opportunities to start a network marketing company – and these people tried one, once, for a month then came to the decision they were ALL scams because their stab at things didn’t quite work.
3. Look back on a mistake with a sense of relief and vow never to do that again! When really all they had to turn failure into success is make a small adjustment to how they were doing things before. And quiet often that is all it takes, but the biggest travesty is that they will never attempt it again!
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison is famous for saying the following quote when accused of being mad by a close colleague when the colleague was narrowly killed on the 700th attempt to make a light bulb. The college said to Edison “Why can’t you see! It’s impossible to create a light bulb; you have tried 700 times now and failed every single time. To which Edison replied: -
“I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
What a compound improver does when making a mistake
Whilst a compound improver will take the chance to look at the mistake and reflect on what went wrong and – more importantly what can they do in future that not only avoids the problems the last mistake caused but how going forward they can make the best of their experience.
Tips on turning a mistake into good experience
So when you next find your self in a difficult position due to a mistake you made recently ask yourself these questions: -
1. Take responsibility for the mistake. Before you ask any of these questions, take responsibility. This is your mistake and you need to put things right, no one is going to do that for you – so take action to put things right yourself.
2. What went wrong? What exactly went wrong? Who, what, why and how. Don’t dwell on this too long but it helps to have a clear picture of how the mistake came about.
3. Was what went wrong in my control? Could I have done anything myself to prevent this occurring. If I could what was it. If not move on.
4. What could I have done to fix things? In this specific situation how could I have gotten things to work instead of things ending in failure?
5. What will I do differently next time? This should really be the summary of the previous questions. Work out what you could have done differently and apply it next time you find yourself faced with a similar situation.
Reflect on the answers and you will quickly find yourself turning mistakes into real opportunities to learn and grow
And remember: Good judgement is usually the result of experience; experience is usually the result of bad judgement.
