This post is about mistakes. I just hope it’s not a mistake that I write about this subject. I think we’ve all been told by well-meaning people, “Don’t make a mistake”, right? That’s pretty much what I’ve heard growing up, especially from my father. What typically happens is that fear sets in. And that fear creates inaction. We become fearful of doing anything falsely believing that we will do something that is bad – a mistake.
The problem with believing that making a mistake is bad comes from generations of like-minded and limited thinking. It’s either perfection or nothing at all with many people. Think of all the mental disorders that came from being told this untruth. Truth be told are that mistakes are there to teach us and even unleash creativity.
Without the allowance of making mistakes as a learning process, babies would turn into adults that can only crawl. Heck, we’d probably still be living in trees. Mistakes are simply challenges that turn possibilities into reality through multiple applications of action.
In a report by CBS News last year, reporter Erik Sherman told of Apple’s success stemmed from the mistakes it made. They are simply willing to make mistakes to find what works and what doesn’t. In the old days we used to call it trial and error. They had many failures and kept at it until they created a product that was good and/or successful. It’s that kind of attitude that led most progressive companies to succeed in the long run. Read Apple’s Success Secret: It Makes Mistakes All the Time for more details.
Mistakes that are actually successes happen all the time. One of the most famous was the sticky glue failure by Spencer Silver, PhD of 3M Company in 1968. He wanted to create a glue that was reusable and could bond two pieces of paper together. Instead, he created a glue that was lousy at bonding the paper. Dr. Silver was onto something, but had no idea on what to do with it.
Fast forward 10 years later and another 3M scientist, Arthur Fry, rediscovered this sticky glue. He took the glue and added to paper to make removable bookmarks. Even though they were popular as a bookmark, the full potential wasn’t realized until Fry sent them to a colleague attached to a report. The colleague sent it back with writing on the paper, still attached to the report.
Then it hit him! He could use these little pieces of paper as a note. Even persuaded the executives at 3M to bring this to market by sending reluctant executives samples. Born were the Post-It Notes.
There are two mistakes that I would suggest avoiding:
- Avoiding mistakes. Why is avoiding mistakes a mistake? Mistakes are a way of teaching us what works in the world and what doesn’t. They allow creativity to flow. Innovation takes place and new ideas are born.
- Repeating the same mistakes over again and expecting different results. Mistakes are meant to be learned from and then making adjustments, not repeated over and over.
Get out and start making more mistakes. Learn as you do. Review what worked and what doesn’t. Learn from those that came before you. You never know what you can unleash from different ideas combined. And in a sense, that is the basis of many grand ideas.
Be mistake-driven to success!
Bob