Well,
we all want to be successful, right? Success is most commonly understood as
making a lot of money or having a stellar career in business, sports or
entertainment. However, success can equally mean being successful at a hobby or
learning a new skill, successfully raising great children, being a wonderful
spouse, successfully fighting a disease or caring for and supporting others. Success
is whatever you want it to be. You define what it is you would like to succeed
in.
No
matter whether you want to be successful in your career, or in anything else,
there is one thing you should always do: Make mistakes and learn from them!
I
stumbled upon a post sometime ago 'The One Thing Successful People Never Do', that talks about
the importance of perseverance in pursuing dreams and not giving up. It
provided many examples of how successful people including Walt Disney, Bill
Gates, J.K. Rowling and Steve Jobs failed along their way to success. Many of
them failed numerous times before they became successful. For example, Henry
Ford went bankrupt with his first attempt to build a car, got sacked from his
second venture, before he finally made it in his third attempt. Another example
is serial-entrepreneur Richard Branson who has a massive array of failed
business ventures to his name including Virgin Cola, Virgin Vie, Virgin
Clothes, Virgin Cars, Virgin Brides, Virgin Flowers, among others. What Branson
shows is that he never gave up on his overall dream but that he was (and still
is) able to admit mistakes (quit the ventures that don't work) and take away
lessons that will make any future ventures more likely to succeed.
Let’s
look at the importance of learning from mistakes in a little more detail. We as
society usually view mistakes as negative. We are often fearful of making and
admitting mistakes because it makes us look weak, vulnerable or stupid.
Instead, we should see mistakes as one of the most important stepping-stones to
success! Making mistakes should be seen as something positive because it often
means we have tried something new or difficult, but didn’t get it quite right
the first time round. Oprah Winfrey got fired from a TV job in her early career
because she was seen as ‘unfit for television’ and Walt Disney got fired for
‘not being creative enough’! They had a choice: Give up on their pursuit of
success or persevere and learn from their mistakes.
But
even more fundamentally: mistakes help us learn anything.
Without
mistakes there would be no progress and no success. We all know that when babies
first learn to walk they will fall over many times and make many missteps.
Learning from these experiences helps them to eventually balance properly and
walk. We all make mistakes, some bigger and some smaller, and they help us to
learn. The problem is that we often put ourselves down for making mistakes. We
feel stupid and embarrassed, especially when the mistakes were big. However,
the bigger our mistakes the more memorable they are for us, which in turn means
that the learning from them is also bigger. I am sure you are like me and
remember many embarrassing mistakes we have made throughout life and because
they were embarrassing we will always remember them vividly. This also means
that they have taught us memorable lessons that will prevent us from making the
same or similar mistakes again.
I
believe that we have to change our attitudes to mistakes so that mistakes
become something we no longer are ashamed of. Instead, we should encourage
people to make mistakes and admit mistakes. Especially in business we seem to
view mistakes as something very negative. Companies want to see clean-cut CVs
that don’t mention any mistakes or missteps and bosses often punish or ridicule
employees for making or admitting mistakes. I like and respect people that show
they have made mistakes. It tells me that they have tried and hopefully taken
away valuable lessons that ensure they never make the same mistake again.
In
my day to day endeavors, I see many different leadership styles. I have to say
that the best leaders are those that allow employees to make mistakes. They
take away the fear of admitting mistakes and instead give people support so
they can take risks and learn from mistakes. I find out that the same also applies
to good coaches, good parents, good teachers, etc. They all understand that
everyone makes mistakes and that it is best to create an environment in which
it is safe to make and admit them.
Of
course, it is not acceptable to make the same mistakes all over. Successful
people are not afraid of making mistakes but they don’t make the same mistake
twice. Take Thomas Edison’s attitude to mistakes during his quest to develop
the light bulb: “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.
It is exactly this attitude and his ability to learn from mistakes that enabled
him to eventually succeed. Edison also said “Many of life’s failures are
people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
So
the overall lessons here are: Be comfortable making mistakes in your pursuit of
success. Don’t be ashamed or put yourself down for making mistakes, but be sure
you learn from them and you don't repeat them! And, of course, never give up
pursuing your dream (even if it means changing direction a few times along the
way)!
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