Why Some People Make Mistakes And Still Have Success
In this post, I’d like to present a useful tool which many people use to achieve success.
People have talked about this before. Personal development gurus, bloggers, famous people, successful actors, athletes, business people, entrepreneurs and even ordinary people know this. You’ve probably heard it before.
The first principle for success is to make mistakes. Nothing is more valuable than that.
There are two ways to make a mistake, the right way and wrong way. To illustrate my point I drew three small pictures. I hope that each picture speaks for itself, however, I will include a small story, just to make everything clearer.
The Wrong Way to Make a Mistake
How do most people act when they make mistakes? They cry, complain, deny that they made a mistake, they feel bad, they just lose control of themselves. This is considered as “normal” reaction. This reaction is not a problem. The problem is that they do not learn anything from the mistakes. The fact that you made a mistake does not mean anything if you have not learned something from it.
Imagine Michael. Michael is an ordinary guy, with a regular job, an average salary, he has a beautiful girlfriend Rachel, the average house, he is in sustainable debt, and maintain “normal life.”
At one point Michael decided to form a company of his own. A printing company, for printing of books, flyers, brochures, catalogues… Michael has worked for years in the printing industry and he has an idea that will definitely satisfy customers.
He borrowed money from a bank and family members and started that company. Michael soon found out that he does not have a lot of knowledge about economic concepts, laws and money… There began to appear many problems. He had a willingness to learn and hire lawyers and accountants… But it was too late. The company went bankrupt a few months later.
At this point Michael is quite unhappy. He is desperate. He constantly repeats to himself that he was wrong. Rachel left him. Now he feels even worse. He often cry while thinking about his life and failure. Family members from whom he borrowed the money are angry at him…
But, as always, time goes on… years have passed… Michael pay back his debts. He felt better about his life. He found a new girlfriend, a new job… and he has vowed to never take risks again!
Now let’s go into detail and take a closer look at the Michael’s success and failure.
1. The beginning of Michael’s failure
2. The company went bankrupt. Rachel has left Michael, he is financially and emotionally destroyed.
3. Enough time has passed, Michael successfully returned the debts and start to feel better.
4. Michael returned to “normal” life, determined to never risk again.
5. Time for which he suffered because of his failure.
As you can see, all to the point No. 1, Michael’s life went normally. Then, Michael has tried to establish a printing company. He failed (point 2). Then we see a period when Michael felt bad, cry, complain, deny and when he had to return the money (point 5). As you can see, it took until he paid the debts (point 3). Then he felt better (point 4) and was able to restore the previous quality of his life.
Yes, I know this is great scenario for some people… after all, Michael has paid his debts and escape from the emotional crisis. But Michael has lost a great opportunity too. His attitude towards making mistakes cost him a lot of money and time. And soon, you’ll see why.
The Right Way to Make a Mistake
Before we continue, I want to say that if you find that a way described above is correct for you, that’s fine with me, I am not forcing anyone on anything, just explaining my opinion.
Let’s go back to Michael before he founded the company. He is just a regular guy who lives a normal life. Then he gets an idea, borrow money and set up the printing company. Michael soon found out that he does not have enough knowledge. He is trying to acquire knowledge, lawyers and accountants, but it is too late.
The company has collapsed. Rachel left him, and many people are angry at him. However, Michael has a great ability to control his emotions. Common sense would be that Michael begin to curse, to deny that he was wrong, to blame “the system”, to cry, to complain to friends and so on.
But Michael does not do that. Is he lost his mind?!
No, Michael has learned something new. He is satisfied. Mistake make him realize that he needs knowledge. As fast as he could, Michael pay his old debts and set up a new company. This time he hired a lawyer, consultant and accountant. He then made the largest printing company in his town!
I just want to make it clear: this is a fictional story, just an example so that you clearly understand the point.
Let’s analyze what Michael did in this case.
1. Michael’s life
2. The moment of bankruptcy (mistake, failure)
3. The company went bankrupt. Rachel has left Michael, he is financially but not emotionally destroyed. He is pleased because of the lessons.
4. Michael has achieved a major success. Now he continues at a higher “level of success” than the previous one.
As you can see, in paragraph (point 1) Michael’s life was “normal.” Then he made the company and failed. (point 2) Then he learned a lesson and set up a new company. (point 3) And he finally achieved a great success. (point 4)
The point of this story about Michael is that the “new” success is quite big (point 4). Much bigger than before the failure (point 1). That is why all successful people have a lot of failures in life. They made many mistakes, gained experience, and use it to their advantage.
What Michael get from this mistake?
1) A lot of experience and knowledge.
2) Amazing life transformation, success and growth.
Success Won’t Be a Problem When You Have Enough Failures
This method works best if you try a lot of bold actions in a short period:
Did you get the point?
Imagine the level of experience, courage and growth you will have after only 5 or 6 well-used mistakes… Each time you will be stronger and more successful.
We are talking about a huge transformation of your life here…
Make a Mistake You Can Be Proud Of
Let’s take a look at what you need to do to create “correct” and useful mistakes…
It’s simple. Step 1: Make a mistake. Step 2: Learn from mistake. Step 3 Advance with using this knowledge. Step 4: repeat the process.
What is success anyway? The answer is very simple. Achieving your intentions.
For achieving your intentions (success) you need only two things:
- know how
- do it
When you know exactly what action you need, and take the action, you will achieve the desired outcome, ie success.
So here are some key points of importance when you want to get the most from mistakes:
- Calmness and self-control. Without self-control over your emotions, you will not have the will and power to make something useful from mistakes.
- You must change your attitude toward mistakes. What are your attitudes toward mistakes and learning from them? The key is to learn from the mistake, to improve. Try to congratulate yourself for every mistake and call them “experience” not “failures.”
- Whether you apply the lesson? Michael from the example could be calm, and he could learn a lesson, but if he would not apply the lesson, he would not have a physical benefit from it.
- “What if I succeed?” It’s great! Congratulations! That is your intention. I did not say that you need to deliberately cause failures. But I suggest to become worthy of success and learn from mistakes. If a child learn to ride a bike and succeed from the first attempt, that’s great news. It’s the same with us… we might succeed from the first attempt, we might succeed from the several attempts…
- Plan, but not too much. I believe that with a good plan, we increase chances for success. You need a goal and you need to plan how to get there. However, you do not need much planning. Restrict your planning time. For example, plan for one week and act for four.
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That’s a really good lesson on the value of making mistakes. Of course, it’s a lot easier said than done but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying does it?
Cheers
Ray
You learn so much from a mistake if you are willing to learn from it of course. I prefer the word mistake to failure as it seems negative.
I believe that everything has a purpose, including mistakes. We may have incidents but mistakes are in the eye of the beholder. Although we, have oversights we can remain on purpose (on the right track).
Marko,
This is a great example of Micheal’s (fictional) life, I am sure there are many of us are like Micheal or sometimes even worse, never recovering from the fall.
I think you explained very well on how to make mistake correctly, sometimes luck and persistence pays off, other times we fall of band wagon. I know I have. I love your writing!
I love this post, Marko. You make your point in such a clear and compassionate way that everyone can identify with. And you make it more than OK to make mistakes – you essentially say that they are a requirement for success.
In NLP there is a principle: there is no failure, only feedback. If we take our “mistakes” and use them as feedback, we are in a perfect position to learn something new. Then we welcome mistakes rather than fear them.
Great post Marko and great topic.
We can’t learn if everything always goes smoothly in our lives. Mistakes are necessary to our growth,
@Ray
Thank you for visiting Calm Growth, yes, it is easier to said than done, but there is no progress without doing, when I think better there is no life without doing.
@Marion
Well, as I said in the text I prefer the word “experience” rather than “failure”… but the power of words is big, because that it is better to say even “mistake”, then “failure”
@Sandra
Good point Sandra, thank you!
@Preeti
Thanks Preeti, I’m glad you read and that you like this!!
@Gail
Thanks for addition about that principle of NLP Gail… I’m glad you like this post
@Angela
mistakes are necessary for growth, only question is how we use them 
I agree Angela, I noticed that you too have posts on this topic
Marko,
I am amazed by the amount of energy and effort you put behind each and every one of your posts. You could make a small book with the information that you provide. All of it is so essential to accomplish the goal we have for our lives. This encourages me that a mistake is just that a mistake and not a reason to quit but to “advance with the knowledge”. Thanks for sharing your gift with the world.
Hi Marko.
Very cool analysis here. The graphs make sense to me. That last one sure does signify how we can keep moving up higher with our mistakes, which we can’t do when we don’t err at all.
I think about the concept inside that last graph quite often, and that is what propels me past mistakes of the past, as I know they give me more ability. Errors dealing with others, being too lenient or too harsh, or not understanding a concept, are able to be conquered by new efforts.
You are right that we lose big opportunities when we let a mistake send us back into “safe mode”. “Safe mode” is pretty terrible at all times. You can only stay on defense for so long.
@Frank
Well thanks Frank, what a great comment.
@Armen
Yes, with the last graph we see the true nature of growth. Growth occurs from learning and applying the learned. Thanks for the great comment Armen.
Marko: I really liked this post and it drove home the point that life is really about living and learning. I couldn’t agree more that we can really set ourselves to perform in great ways when we make mistakes and then learn all the lessons associate with the mistake so that we never make the same one again. I also liked what Gail said about mistakes being a feedback mechanism. I think that is also so true. Great post and insights.