Always try to learn from your errors!
I was watching Morning Express with Robin Meade, when a new clip came on about a man that shot mistletoe out of a tree in a parking lot. Obviously he was arrested. When they went on to interview him, apparently this had happened before when he shot mistletoe out of his neighbor’s tree the previous year.
Personally, if I were to get arrested for shooting mistletoe out of my neighbor’s tree, I certainly wouldn’t take my shotgun to a parking lot and try to shoot the mistletoe out of the tree in a public location! When they showed the man talking on TV, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t the most clever individual.
All of this leads up to the fact that if you error, you must learn from the experience or else you will continually lose and never get ahead personally or financially. Most of us can’t play a perfect game in life and the stock market, even the investing legend Warren Buffett hasn’t played a perfect game!
I remember the first stock that I bought that went bust (or belly up)! It’s was a small Canadian company call “New York Seltzer”, and while the company was questionable since part of their name was New York (even though they were based in Canada), their product was great! So as a young teen with big dreams, I plopped down an even $200 in a company that I thought would expand and grow like crazy. I was very, very wrong.
From my “New York” seltzer experience, I learned at a young age that sometimes having a great product isn’t enough. Those that run the company are critical, and if you don’t have an “A+ team” running the company, then even with a great product, you can still lose! Later, there was a company called SyQuest that also made a superior product (at the time) called Sparq drives. I bought their product and loved it and considered buying stock in the company. But then I looked at how it was run and the way they advertised their product and I decided not to take the leap! This turned out to be a good move.
The point is that we all make mistakes, it’s part of being human, and life would be pretty dull if everybody was perfect. But continually making the same or similar mistake is something to be avoided! The man mentioned above should have learned from his mistakes last year, and if you aren’t sure about something, then Google it. While Google doesn’t guarantee that the answer is correct, most of the time it will be if you read a few articles.
When you make an big mistake, think about and learn what happened and take corrective actions so it doesn’t happen again.
What do you do when you make mistakes?
MR
P.S. I know my title looks weird, but “Too Error” is actually a play on words, the real words phrase is “To Err”, but I thought it would be funny to error on the title (lol)…
Hey, sometimes you just gotta shoot the mistletoe out of the tree AGAIN! I’m sure it was looking at him funny.
I’ve found that if I’m running fast in my business I make mistakes. If I don’t make mistakes, I probably am not going fast enough. The key is to make sure I make different mistakes each time, and as you pointed out, learn and laugh.
Great post. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life but none have been for loss only. I have learned so much and used this new knowledge to make better decisions for the future.
Yep, I agree. The main thing is to try, whether you succeed instantly or err a few times. My site is ladden with errors, even at the most basic level (my theme is a beta version that I’ll change in 2012).
The main thing for me is to keep trying…
Haha, I was laughing when I read the last sentence. I was totally contemplating correcting you on your grammar….love it. My fiancee would have had a conniption fit and probably WOULD have corrected you nevertheless. 😉
lol. yeah, sometimes I try to have fun on the site… I probably have plenty of grammar mistakes in my posts anyway. why I would do it on purpose is beyond me.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my little twist 🙂
I’m a slow learner and it takes about the 3 times for me to figure things out. I invested in a couple of small business ventures. The first time I lost quite a bit, the 2nd time I most likely will lose only a little bit, I think there won’t be a 3rd time….
My problem is than on most thing that require capital or for me to go into debt, I chicken out on. This is a bad approach (I’ve learned this lately). It’s better to try and fail, then learn and do it again, than sit on the bench of life and watch the world and my youth go by…
You don’t shoot mistletoe out of trees? Hmmm…
My mistakes have been more about credit than anything, but I learned.
PS: I like your intentional error in the title — very funny!
Thanks, I figured that if I wrote an article about erring, I had to create an error myself 🙂
The only thing smarter than learning from your mistakes, is to learn from others mistakes. If only Rob Blagojevich was so clever?
wow 14 years! Of course he’ll be out before then, but still…
Yep, I’m trying to teach my son to learn from my mistakes, but he’s still a nonbeliever… lol
Sometimes you can learn more from your mistakes than the best advice given to you freely!
Totally Agree 🙂
The best learned lessons are paid for by costly errors $$$ 🙂
yes they are, and hopefully they only happen a few times!!!
I think you and I have a similar sense of humor.. hahaha.
🙂 yes I believe we do!
I like the title! 🙂
Every mistake is a learning lesson, and if you’re not making mistakes in what you’re doing, you are probably not trying hard enough.