If I Truly Learned From All of My Mistakes, I Would Be a Genius by Now
Everyone makes mistakes.
Some blunders are bigger than others, but all come dressed in a lesson or an important takeaway. The idea of viewing mistakes and failures as opportunities to grow and as springboards to propel future success is now a part of popular culture. Failing forward is what good leaders do.
After so many missteps and slip-ups and so many opportunities to learn and grow, you might expect to be much wiser than you are. Unfortunately, we often don’t keep the lessons we derive from our experiences or make them accessible to us over the long term.
After a few seasons, the learnings that were so powerful at the moment often fade away or are forgotten. As a rule, most leaders don’t benefit from their mistakes nearly as much as they should.
To extract the lessons and to keep them top of mind, good leaders follow a simple habit. After any stumble or screw-up, they immediately write down the lesson or takeaway in a place where they can review it in the future.
While some missteps require reflection to fully understand and absorb the learning, time is of the essence. The sooner a leader can articulate the takeaway, the more likely it is to be imprinted in the mind for use in what lies ahead.
Periodically reviewing the lessons (not the failures themselves) accumulated over time is how to make the learnings available. This review injects a strong dose of wisdom that reminds us how to best navigate the challenges at hand.
Without distilling the lessons and engaging in the review, leaders are destined to repeat some mistakes over and over. There is simply no reason to leave crucial learnings to an imperfect memory.
Remember this: If you can’t articulate the lesson, takeaway, or action after a failure, you haven’t benefitted fully from it. And if you don’t write that lesson down and review it on an ongoing basis, the learning isn’t yours to profit from.
Failing forward requires us to respect our blunders and cherish the lessons they teach. Keeping those lessons fresh in our memory is how to avoid reliving the same mistakes and how to act on the wisdom they so perfectly declare. Wisdom from failure is how the best leaders own their responsibility for the future.
Not all mistakes lead to failures. Not all failures result from mistakes. Writing down lessons from both is a great idea.
Experimenting with a new business model and going all in when your poker hand is four kings are not mistakes but I have had failures in both cases.
I have also made mistakes in pricing models in my favor and won the business anyway. A true mistake without a failure.
Kaizen and lifelong learning, combined with my maxim of “write it down” is the way to go.
Excellent post! Only a vulnerable leader, though, will do as you so well describe: honestly assess their role in the mistake, setback or failure. Otherwise, other people, the circumstances surrounding the mistake, timing, whatever will be blamed, and the opportunity to learn gone. I like your suggestion to write the lessons learned down, not the mistake. While I have filed away in my head many of my learnings from my mistakes throughout my career, I of course don't remember them all. What a great personal leader development tool--keeping a journal of lessons learned. Thanks.