Mistaken Mistake

I am proud of making a  good mistake. – Unknown

Human make mistakes. It is our nature. How many mistakes you’ve made today? Even if we already know it is our nature, yet many of us are afraid of making mistakes. In school, we have been taught for years that there is a primary classification: the right stuff and bad stuff. When we did the bad ones, we will be punished. Punishment gives various reactions towards everybody, some of them will be afraid and then trying to obey every rules, the result is: they will grow up being a perfectionist. It has been set in their mind that mistake is bad and they need to stay away from it.

School has taught us moral values, but it didn’t taught us the immoral values; concept of making mistakes. Common problem after graduating school: fear. Fear of not getting a job. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of losing money. Fear of taking risks.

So, is it really wrong to teach moral value?
Absolutely not,
but we should also teach kids about the function of rule and punishment.

Teach them not to be afraid of rules, that it is okay to make a mistake,
that there will be always consequences in their life, that they are not alone,
and that they could be who they are.

Of course I’m not saying that making mistake is always good, but the fear of making mistake is worse. It could affect many aspects in our life. Ideas will take a longer time to generate, creativity will be reduced, along with increased guilty feelings. When you skip an opportunity to take risk, and the other day you know that you should’ve take it, you would have a guilty feeling, and it will haunted some people for days.

And along the way, after we’ve grown up, we knew that not every mistake is good and not every mistake is bad. The good person doesn’t always good, and the bad person doesn’t always bad.

When we talk about ideas and creativity, we should take a look at Mozart and Beethoven. Fur Elise didn’t become a well-known song in a day. Beethoven has made more than 300 compositions and took many years to get Fur Elise, and so did Mozart. It is also applicable to all scientists. They would do trial and error a hundred times to get a Nobel Prize. Not limited to business and startup field, you’ll need to try harder smarter.

The key is this. The more you fail, the more you’ll try, the more you’ll learn, and that is the point to be the next level. It doesn’t mean that you’ll have to fail fast, as Adam Grant said in his book ‘Originals’:
Most of the successful businesses brought by the originals.
And those originals do not rush.
They would think about the business concept for months, as it needs to be ‘mature’.
Well, it is ok to be a procastinator, it is one of many ways to generate an idea.

Besides all those stuffs, afraid of making mistakes will lead you to become a ‘fixed person’. Compare to the ‘growth people’, ‘fixed people’ is less likely to ask others about themselves. For them, it is quite hard to take down their ego and pride in front of others. It is quite hard to be humble. Asking others about your strengths and weaknesses could improve yourself to become a better one.
Possibility to gain more jobs will increased.
And most important, you will live a happier life.

For the one with ‘fixed mindset’, try to ask anything related to you with your family or close friend. Prepare yourself to get the worst answer, ask them what is the best solution to overcome your weakness, and DO IT.
It all starts with your mind.
What kind of person you wanted to be?

pic: Google