Every entrepreneur makes mistakes. What most often separates successful entrepreneurs from all the rest is that they have the humility to accept their mistakes, and the wisdom to learn from them.
Greg Satell offers a wonderful post on the power of owning and learning from mistakes at DigitalToronto.
(via CJ Cornell)
Being able to learn from mistakes is a hard lesson that I have had to learn through school and sports. I was always told that the best athlete is the one who is the most coachable; this means that to be the best you have to be willing to make mistakes and learn from them.
I appreciated the flow of Satell’s post and the way it moved through so many different topics and historical events, yet continually found its way back to the central theme – “what makes the difference between success or failure” is one’s willingness and “ability to learn things along the way.”
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard this message or something very similar to it from my elder family members and others for whom I have developed great respect.
While Satell makes an explicit point about learning from our own mistakes and being willing to change, he also makes a much less explicit point; that is, there is significant value in a broad knowledge of history and a wide range of learning.
Dr.Cornwall, this article is something that resonated with.me due to learning from my mistake within the interview process I’ve been going through. I believe one thing we all should realize is it’s okay to make mistakes, but learn from them and grow from them. Plus attach what you learned and do it everything you can do be better. You have to be willing to be come the best person you can be to do the job you want or even own the business you want one day.
The article provided in this post was incredibly inspiring. Being a student athlete, I have had to learn how to deal with failures over and over again. Just as the article described, it really isn’t about the failure, but it is all about how we respond to it. When we are at our most embarrassing/lowest points, there is infinite opportunity for growth, as long as we allow it.
The topic of failure is one that deeply resonates with me, and I love to read articles or posts that discuss it. In my life, it was important for me to fail so that I understood what it takes to win/succeed in life. When looking at history, it can be seen that the most admired people in society once failed, and that is okay. Learning from mistakes is a crucial part of life and business. I was pleased to see a post tackling this issue.
Understanding when it is time to give up some portion of your idea because your customers need something else from you is a hard thing to do. You can grow so attached to an idea that it becomes something that you don’t want to budge on any detail about. But as Satell wrote, learning from the mistakes you’ve made or the conversations you have had with customers is the only way to work past a failing idea and into a successful one. It can be hard and unenjoyable, but it’s the only way to be separated from other leaders.
Being flexible with your business model is an important piece of success, but being able to adapt your thinking is essential. Learning requires humility. I’m sure there are many business owners today who are unfamiliar with social media and refuse to see the need to get it, after years operating without it. In a few years, these same businesses will likely fail. Adaption is critical. We see in these examples of Ghandi and Steve Blank how much adaptation was required for their success.
Eventually, everybody experiences a time in their lives where they make mistakes. They can either be upset and be stuck on those mistakes or take them as lessons to learn from in the future. If we don’t learn from our mistakes, wont be just repeat them in the future?