The Secret Value of Mistakes and Failure

We’re all taught to avoid mistakes. Since school, the best students are those that have a perfect exam with zero mistakes. 

When we start working, it’s common to be nervous about our first days as no one wants to make any mistake that might compromise our new job or mistakes that could be felt directly at our bank account. 

But if you look back and think about how you learned things, you’ll find hundreds of failures before success. That’s what it takes to learn the right way of doing things. 

When we learned how to walk, we stumbled and fell a few times. When learning how to ride our first bike, we got ourselves some bruises. Thomas A. Edison failed 999 times before creating the light bulb. 

Yet some companies still penalize mistakes? 

Below we’ll give you a list of some of the best creations that were made by mistake: 

• Penicillin: Sir Alexander Fleming was attempting to create something different when he discovered penicillin. 

• Chocolate chip cookies: Chocolate was supposed to melt and create chocolate cookies; instead it got stuck and made the delicious cookies. 

• The microwave: While doing a radar related research, scientists discovered the other use that has made cooking and heating much faster. 

• Post it notes: While trying to create strong glue, weak glue was created, a colleague used it in papers to mark his workplace and that’s how Post Its were born. 

Consider every mistake part of the learning experience. If your company hires the wrong person, even if it has a cost, think of it as an investment as it helped you identify what you did wrong and the next person will be even better. 

If a business negotiation failed, take it as the cost for future negotiations of bigger deals. Reading a book, going to a conference or studying in a university will not replace that experience lived. 

Success rarely comes naturally; it is only the last steps of continuous attempts, of many corrections of a process. 

That is why mistakes and failure should not be penalized in companies. Creating the fear of exploring new ways of doing things will only limit your own company’s success. 

If you want to avoid mistakes when looking for an office, give us a call at (866) 354-5478 or visit OfficeList. We’ve learned from mistakes we’ve made in the past and have been perfecting the office search process.