Success vs failure. We tend to overestimate how bad our mistakes are and how much they will cost us.
But you might just need a little shift of perspective.
“I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes” – Edna Millay
When you’re not used to making mistakes, they can be very scary.
Like you’re going to end up homeless because you messed up something at work.
And so we avoid mistakes. But that can actually be our biggest mistake.
Words alone don’t teach
Sometimes it’s necessary that you make your own mistakes.
Of course, it’s extremely valuable to have a mentor or coach who is a specialist in what you want to do.
You can save a lot of time, money, and frustration when you have someone to guide you.
Then you don’t have to spend years figuring out what they already know.
But you usually can’t just copy someone else and get the same results. Some things you simply have to learn for yourself.
That’s when your mind can make the necessary connections and gain real experience.
If you mess up, you will remember what you did wrong and you won’t make the same mistake again.
Success vs failure is not that simple. Some mistakes are necessary and even real failures can be key to your success.
The problem with advice
You can find plenty of guides everywhere saying something like “50 things I wish I knew when I was starting out”.
Even if they mean well, they probably won’t help you much.
When someone simply tells us “Don’t do this” or “Don’t do it like this” we can’t always understand why this is important.
We don’t know what the consequences could be when we do it wrong.
The advice doesn’t get through when we don’t know enough about the subject to see if it’s good advice.
Or it may not even apply to your particular situation.
Sometimes you even say to yourself “If only I had known this sooner”. And you know what?
Knowing it sooner may not have helped. Because you didn’t know all the things you know today.
You didn’t have all the information you got in the meantime.
Success vs failure
Failure and success are very closely related.
If the timing isn’t right for you, even the best advice can’t help you.
So, if possible find a few different perspectives on the problem you’re trying to solve.
And then you make your own decision. Maybe you won’t get it right the first time, but you may learn a valuable lesson.
Don’t beat yourself up about it. Try to see any mistakes as the secret power you need to succeed. The feedback you get is valuable input.
“Mistakes are the best teachers. One does not learn from success. It is desirable to learn vicariously from other people’s failures, but it gets much more firmly seared in when they are your own”. – Mohnish Pabrai
Success vs failure. They may be much closer related than you think they are.
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