I was just reading a fun article that quotes a lot of folks opining about what makes people successful.
One famous Englishman said success is to be found by never making the same mistake twice.
Undoubtedly, you've heard that as I have, but suddenly it rang false to me.
I wondered, are there good reasons to make the same mistake TWICE, or perhaps even more than that? I think there are five reasons to recommend it: (1) How do you know what you did was a mistake if you obtained a poor result only once? For instance, most people who try to sell for a living can't cut it, not because they're untalented or hopeless oafs, but because they quit far too soon.
Selling is a statistical game, and as they say, you can't win them all.
Quitters, who blanch at the first rejection don't hang-in long enough to let the real statistics reveal themselves.
Often, their rejections are front-loaded, where they'll evoke several in a row.
If they persist, they'll just as likely run into a string of yeses that will make them thank their stars they've chosen to sell for a living.
(2) We improve at most things that we try multiple times.
Look at public speakers.
Most aren't "born to the platform," they are self-made, and their initial utterances were filled with mistakes.
But they kept on and then found their real voices, to the delight of future audiences.
(3) Have you ever made a mistake but it was really a blessing in disguise? You know those famous Post-It Notes, don't you? They were the result of a scientist FAILING to concoct a firm adhesive.
He was able to repeat his mistake, now many millions, if not billions of times, and we're all a little better off and more organized for his ingenuity and luck.
(4) Rubber, made through vulcanization, occurred in much the same way.
Scientists left the pot on the stove too long, and we've been driving and bicycling on their mistakes ever since.
Proving anything in science requires repetition, including our happy accidents.
(5) The only people who don't make mistakes, I was taught long ago, are do-nothings.
Frankly, I don't have the time or patience to carefully avoid erring twice.
In fact, it takes about three or four ventures of the same kind to even alert me to the possibility that I blew-it.
Keep your eyes peeled on opportunities and let the "mistakes" add up.
None other than the founder of IBM, Thomas Watson, recommended that we go forth and "double" our "failure rate.
" That may be the surest path to success!