In life, we all make mistakes.
When we are young, if we are in a positive environment, we’re told to learn from them and move on. As we get older, our environment decrees whether or not we learn to own up to our mistakes or are forced to find ways of hiding them, to avoid getting found out from less-than-sympathetic managers or colleagues.
Tough To Admit
Although working for ourselves should mean that there is no blame involved when things go wrong, it’s still tough to admit mistakes to ourselves and learn from them, instead of hanging our head in shame or ploughing on with a redundant idea to ‘save face’ and remove the need to admit where we have gone wrong.
Many people who have worked in a tough corporate environment for a number of years have been trained to gloss over mistakes, hoping that they will either go unnoticed, or be put right without any impact on the success of our jobs.
Clumsy Me…
I remember when I was a child at school, a group of friends and I tried to help our teacher by clearing up the paint bottles from the classroom, carrying them down to the bathrooms to wash them up ready for the next class to use.
I have always been on the clumsy side, as my dancing skills now attest, and I carried my bright red paint bottle upside down. Out of the classroom, down the corridor I wandered, pausing to look at things on the wall until finally ending up by the sinks.
After washing up my red bottle, I turned around and saw a long, wobbly trail of paint leading back to the classroom. In those days, the corridor wasn’t carpeted but it was buffed to a high sheen, and my paint trail quickly got walked through, meaning the paint was suddenly everywhere.
I Panicked…
I managed to swap my red bottle for a blue one, which my friend was carrying. He got told off for dribbling the paint everywhere, and I got off without recrimination.
The only problem after that was my friend didn’t talk to me anymore, and I was weighed down with the type of heavy guilt which only a seven year-old boy can feel. I’ve never forgotten that shame, to this day, and I think it taught me a valuable lesson. Admit when you have made a mistake, because anything else leaves you feeling worse off than your honesty ever could.
Admitting mistakes as a grown-up business owner
As a blogger and small business owner, I cringe when I think about the mistakes that I have made through my business.
When I started up, I was still learning the ins and outs of making a blog and business ownership. I subscribed to unnecessary products, engaged the services of people who were looking to profit from my naivety, and even started businesses that were bound to flounder and fall apart after the initial flurry of interest, because of poor planning.
Have The Strength…
Now I have a successful business, I haven’t forgotten my mistakes. I think that the older we get, the easier it is to face up to what we have done wrong, and learn what we would do differently if we had the chance. One of the most powerful things we can do is own up to the fact that things aren’t going too well, and have the strength to admit it, and move on.
This translates beautifully across all elements of blogging and business ownership. If we have chosen a wrong turn in our quest to be a success, we need to have the courage to stand back objectively and admit it isn’t working. Each time we make a mistake, we do learn from it, as long as we have the courage to face up to it.
Similarly, we need to use this honesty with our customers. If we have too much on and can’t hit a deadline, admit to it and explain. If we have forgotten a project, get in touch with the customer and let them know, instead of making excuses. One of the beauties of being a small business owner is that we are entitled to be human, and one of the best human traits we have is honesty.
Trust me on this.
If your blog is starting to resemble a wiggly line of red paint instead of a clean blue bottle, it could be time to reassess your path down the corridor, and try something different.
And if you spill the paint, don’t put your red hands behind your back, and expect your customers not to notice!
Twitter: commentluv
says:
This really is an excellent guest post Andrew!!
I have included it using the full text content in the newsletter as a shining example to others on how to write their guest posts.Thanks!!
and it’s great advice too! +1
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Thanks, Andy.
Your kind words have made my day.
I hope it helps some of your readers!
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..Liar Liar Your Bums On Fire
In that case I’ll say it too. Great post Andrew. I love your blog and it’s great to see you sharing the wealth with the comluv community. Good job!
alex johnson´s recent blog post ..ebay business ideas
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Thanks, Alex.
Andrew
Andrew Rondeau´s recent blog post ..Business Blogging Is Like Raising Kids
Interesting blog post. What we could achieve if we would learn from other people mistakes, right? Although I try to analyze what I am doing and how I am doing it and look on this from the outside, it is really hard to see the mistake before it happens. When it happens, then I learn and do everything to avoid it for the future. It is just part of the human’s psychology – before it doesn’t happen with you, you just don’t care. I am happy to see that I do actually care before it happens, but it just comes with a time.
Peter from Auto Traffic Avalanche´s recent blog post ..Easy Video Player 20 Alian Technology Free Video Demonstration
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Peter
Making mistakes is not a problem or anything to be fearful of. We all do – some small, small big!
So that’s one major point – never be afraid of making mistakes.
The second point is learning from them. If you make a mistake try and learn from it, so you don’t make the mistake again.
The third point (the point I didn; t do when I was kid (as per the blog post) was admit you made a mistake. It takes courage to own up but I quickly learnt these words…”It was my fault.”
You get a lot of respect when you own up.
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..Liar Liar Your Bums On Fire
Andrew, this was an on point yet very hilarious post. Good to know they are others that are ‘owning’ up to their mistakes, I own up to mine every day and make no excuses.
I liked the part of carrying the paint bottle upside down and swapping with your friend to displace the blame, that is classic of how alot of youngsters are. I remember another clumsy guy stapling his finger (not as serious as it sounds). We all had a good laugh that day, even the guy that stapled his finger!
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Dwight,
When I worked in the corporate world there was a lot of ‘finger pointing’ going on. As the manager it was my job to get different teams to work together to find resolutions to problems.
The quicker a team or individual owned up to making a mistake, the quicker we found a resolution.
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..Anti-Spambot Plugin
Great post, Andrew, and spot on! As you say, everyone makes mistakes. The real test is how we handle them.
docsheldon´s recent blog post ..BlogEngage Blogging Contest Update
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Doc,
Exactly!
That can be the hardest part along with owning up to them!
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..How to Grow Your Blog Readers
Twitter: lavenderuses
says:
As always Andrew. You have delivered
” A fool learns by his own mistakes; a wise man by the mistakes of others.” I would like to be a bit wiser!
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia´s recent blog post ..A Dental visit with a difference…where’s the lavender
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Patricia,
” A fool learns by his own mistakes; a wise man by the mistakes of others.”
I don’t really agree with that statement.
I think a wise man does make mistakes. Then owns up to them, learns from them and doesn’t repeat the same mistake again.
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..Total Money Makeover Book Giveaway
I make a new mistake everyday. I figure I could do as Chris Guilleabeau says and spend thousands of dollars in school, or I can spend money and learn by living life…that’s my education. It is rough sometimes though. (Deep breath).
humbleobserver´s recent blog post ..Why Saying Thanks Can Help You De-Stress
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
@humbleobserver
Really like what you say. I can see why you say living life and you’ll learn a lot more.
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..Blog Expert Series- The Surprising Decision 77 Of Bloggers Get Wrong
Great advice
Jenny´s recent blog post ..Beware the Walkers
Twitter: SwanBizCentre
says:
Thanks. I learned what a good post should look like. Now I need to work out the WordPress Dashboard to incorporate the elements. Any recommended reading?
I have a paint-type story too, and from the guilt that followed for the next few years I realised we have a very short window of opportunity to confess. Wait too long, the opportunity is lost, and we have to keep living the lie. Not worth it. Julia
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Julia
I have a free WordPress blogging guide you can download from my site…it maybe a start.
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..By Christmas You Can Have An Amazing Blog
Twitter: MrsMoodyGermany
says:
Thank you for this Andrew, very to the point and i really encountered that prob too.
I somehow managed it by taking a break for a while, and it will usually help.
Kimi´s recent blog post ..Add Custom Background WordPress in Dashboard
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Kimi,
How long was the break you took?
I get withdrawal symptoms if I am away from my blog too long!
Andrew
Andrew´s recent blog post ..The Plugin That Gets You More Sales
Twitter: MrsMoodyGermany
says:
Andrew,
Not long, usually one day LOL
But One day really off from computer even checking emails.
I can’t get away longer :/ heavy addicted
Kimi´s recent blog post ..Add Custom Background WordPress in Dashboard