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Using Mistakes Successfully

Written by: Zig Ziglar

Article Overview: Each of us at one time or another has thought about how wonderful it would be to have as much foresight as hindsight. Then we could avoid making mistakes! Not only is that hope unrealistic, it's also unwise. Mistakes are often the springboard for major accomplishments. Here's a good example:

Using Mistakes Successfully

Each of us at one time or another has thought about how wonderful it would be to have as much foresight as hindsight. Then we could avoid
making mistakes! Not only is that hope unrealistic, it's also unwise. Mistakes are often the springboard for major accomplishments. Here's a good example:

Thomas Edison was working with a lab assistant who was coming up dry after over 700 experiments. In discouragement, the assistant told Edison that after all these mistakes, errors, and false starts, he simply didn't believe that the project was valid. Edison quickly told him that he wasn't wasting his time and that the assistant now knew more about the project than anybody alive. Edison wisely observed that the assistant hadn't made mistakes but instead had acquired an education as to what didn't work. Needless to say, the assistant went
back to his project with renewed vigor.

If you take Edison's approach to life, you end up accomplishing much, much more. You need to understand that after every mistake you can look
back and grow from the experience so that you can move forward with confidence and avoid making the same mistake again.

Here are three tips for handling a mistake, either at home or work:

1. Don't let a mistake depress or discourage you. See a mistake as a step on the road to a solution. Realize that depression and discouragement are negatives that limit the future.

2. Admit the mistake. Yes, admitting your mistakes takes courage, but recognition of errors is a sign of maturity. Not to recognize them is to deny them, and denial limits your future.

3. Understand that when you confront your mistakes, you can take full advantage of them as the positive experiences they can be. When you
ignore mistakes or try to conceal them, they almost always have a negative impact.

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Article Tags: confidence, courage, denial, depression, discouragement, education, experiences, foresight, hadn, hindsight, maturity, mistake, negative impact, springboard, thomas edison, vigor



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Re: 365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make - [quote="litekepr":2v18lglp]This morning's Google Alert held a pleasant surprise. WORTH MENTIONING A List of New Books Compiled by The Management and Government Information Center (MAGIC) Chinn Park Regional Library 703-792-4880Summer 2007 Indicates titles relating to the FISH Philosophy 365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make Every Day: How and Why to Avoid Them by Shri L. Henkel, 2006 interesting. Is anyone else here familiar with the FISH philosphy? i[/quote:2v18lglp] Congrats on the mention of your book! Hopefully it will drive up sales! For myself, I don't really care for their acronym... MAGIC. Gives people the subtle impression that good things happen at the snap of a finger instead of lots of hard work!
Managing Your Brand - One of the biggest hurdles for a lot of business owners to leap when it comes to the internet is realizing that people will be talking about your company whether you like it or not. And that includes good AND bad. Mistakes are bound to happen in any business, but when they do it's quite possible that the story will wind up on the internet where anyone searching for your business can find it. If you're not maintaining an effective presence on the web or mortgage broker websites, you're going to have two problems if this happens. The negative review could wind up ranking high in the search results, so whenever somebody searches for your business, this could be one of the first things they see. The review might be accurate if a mistake really was made, or it might be completely inaccurate, but that potential customer has no way of knowing for sure (and is more than likely going to accept it as fact). You won't have a chance to explain the situation and fix it. The solution here is to be a part of the conversation. In other words, engage your customers where these kinds of things might appear so you can try to correct any mistakes that were actually made, or explain your side if it's completely inaccurate. There are two of the places that these kinds of discussions can happen - Facebook and Twitter. It's important that you have a presence on both, if only as a point of contact for your customers who are already in those places. Imagine this scenario… One of your employees has been dealing with a customer, and the customer is unhappy with the service they received. But instead of coming to you and giving you the opportunity to fix the problem, they go to these websites and post about the problem and how unhappy they were with your company. If you don't have a presence on Twitter or Facebook, you might never know about it. But people who are looking for information about your company online could quite likely find that information whenever they search for you. Now think about this... If you are active on those sites, on the other hand, you can jump in and try to correct the situation. This is not only going to give you a chance to turn an unhappy customer into a happy one (who might also become one of your biggest supporters at that point) it's also going to add your side of things to the "record" of the situation on the internet. Now when someone searching for you finds that review/complaint, they're also going to see your response, and the fact that you tried to correct the situation for that unhappy customer. Which scenario would you prefer?
Five Biggest Mistakes Women Make in Business - Looking for some information I found an interesting article which mentions about “Five Biggest Mistakes Women Make in Business.” 1. Flighty Networking—Some women have the mistaken notion that networking means attending as many events as possible and pitching their business. This concept has two fallacies: First, it’s crazy to spend all your time flitting between functions unless you feel confident that your target audience will be there. Rather than attending lots of events, analyze who will be at each one and then determine if it is smart for you to invest your time and money to be there. Second, when you do identify an individual as a potential prospect, describe yourself and your business in a short, interesting way. Then focus on asking questions and really listening to what they say. Remember the old adage: Be Interested rather than Interesting. 2. Being too busy to volunteer—Always be ready to volunteer. Whether it is for CED or another organization to which you belong, always be ready to offer service. I have found that every hour I invest in an organization such as CED comes back to me tenfold. 3. Inflexibility—Today’s world is one of constant change and requires creative, out-of-the-norm approaches to business problems and opportunities. You can’t run a 2007 business playing with a 1999 handbook. It just won’t work. Always be open to listening, observing and trying new things. Always be thinking, “What will my customers want five years from now?” And be sure your business is heading in that direction. 4. Showing your strength by bullying others—I know so many women who have had to be “tough” in order to survive in a male-dominated industry. But the really smart ones have taken a different approach. They have developed a cooperative, consensus-building approach in dealing with others, and this wins out every time. 5. Working from a position of scarcity—Too many businesspeople have a “scarcity mentality.” They believe there is not enough time, not enough money, not enough customers, not enough qualified employees and on and on. Of course there is enough of everything in the world; you just have to look at situations from a slightly different perspective to be able to see it all. It is up to you to share and keep the cycle of success alive, not only for your own organization, but for every business within CED. Pass on what you’ve learned through trial and error, and share your time, energy, and encouragement with others. This is the mark of a truly successful entrepreneur!


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