"The importance of mistakes"



"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything"
Edward John Phelps (1822-1900)



A senior marketing executive with a high-powered corporation, so the
urban legend says, once backed a marketing campaign which went seriously
awry costing his company a significant amount of money. Chastened, he
entered hic CEOs office with a suitably worded letter of resignation
fully intending to bow-out the honourable way.
To his surprise, the CEO calmly tore up the letter. But, said the
marketing executive, My mistake has cost the company millions!

Exactly, said the CEO, Do you think Im going to let you go now after
spending so much on your education? Absurd? Perhaps! But thought
provoking.

The very fact that most of us are walking around today simply means that
we have made many mistakes in our lives. A baby does not learn to walk
without first falling down frequently and often! Each fall can be
construed as a mistake. Yet society at large regards mistakes as
failures and those unfortunate perfectionists among us regard a mistake
with such shame and horror that nothing short of sack cloth and ashes is
sufficient to purge their souls.

Lets put this in perspective. On a given day at 14h39, two people are
asked the time. One replies it is now 14h40 while the other replies it
is somewhere between 12h00 and 16h00. The second reply is technically
correct while the first is clearly wrong out by at least one minute. Yet
which reply is more useful? Clearly the wrong reply! Even a stuck or
broken analogue clock will be exactly right at least twice a day!

We learn by our mistakes. Observe Thomas Edison who apparently failed
hundreds of times before, by trial and error (mistakes), coming up with
the exact formula of heat and light to successfully produce the basis of
the filament used in modern light bulbs otherwise we would all be
watching TV by candlelight.

Of course there are mistakes and MISTAKES being complacent about
icebergs on the Titanic was clearly an enormously chilling mistake and
not to be taken lightly. By and large we learn from our mistakes. Market
testing and medical research are prime examples. The trick is not to
make the same mistake more than once and to learn the valuable lesson
offered from each mistake.

True wisdom - of course is the ability to learn from the mistakes of
others, thus progressing in life, love or business without incurring too
many bumps on the head from the University of Hard-knocks at which we
are all (reluctant) students.