The Mentor | #53 | Mistakes
Each month, I share 3 things I’ve read on skills, careers, and personal development.
“Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.” -Pearl S. Buck
Mistakes are inevitable. No one achieves anything meaningful without stumbling along the way. The question isn’t whether you’ll make mistakes—it’s how you respond when you do.
Too often, mistakes are viewed as final—a failure that closes doors. But in reality, mistakes are rarely the end. They’re lessons in disguise, providing insight, experience, and an opportunity to grow.
There are 3 steps to overcome mistakes: Own them, Analyze them, and Move On. Use them as fuel to keep going.
Mistakes are a sign that you’re trying and stretching beyond your comfort zone. Making progress.
I like to say: Progress, not perfection.
In 1995, a Stanford professor named John Krumboltz asked his students to take two approaches to learning photography. One group would focus on creating one perfect photograph. They could spend as much time as they wanted planning, shooting, and editing a single masterpiece. The other group, however, had a different challenge: they were tasked with producing as many photos as possible—quantity over quality.
At the end of the term, something surprising happened. The quantity group not only produced more photos but also created better quality work than the perfection group. Why? Because every photo they took was a chance to learn, experiment, and improve. While the perfection group spent time agonizing over their single image, the quantity group made mistakes, adjusted, and progressed.
The lesson is simple: progress comes from consistent effort and learning from mistakes, not waiting for perfection.
1
Navigating discomfort is less about willpower and more about applying a diverse array of coping strategies and tools.
2
If you want to get into the rooms where it happens, don't complain and don't get distracted. Be a reliable worker to those you work for and with. Making mistakes doesn’t mean you are unreliable.
3
We all make mistakes. What separates us is how we deal with them: whether we study them, share them, whether we learn and grow.
Dear Rob, thank you for sharing your wisdom, it is highly appreciated.
Being at the start of my career, I made different experiences with mistakes. On the one hand I had mentors / colleagues that challenged me to learn from those and on the other hand I experienced more senior colleagues that did not allow any mistakes and felt the urge to "punish" every mistake that I did. I wonder what your advice would be with the second type of people in organizations. Best regards, Radu