How to Fuel and Grow Your Business with Your Mistakes

Have you ever sent out an email to a bunch of folks and later found out that there was an egregious typo, or maybe you got a fact wrong, or maybe you forgot a word, or had a wrong date and on an on?  The worst of it is that you didn’t find it, that one of your prospects, or maybe it was one of your clients took time out to tell you about your error.

Well I can tell you from going through this experience more than once, it’s no fun making mistakes, simple ones like typos in your advertising, or in your email, and even more complex ones like picking the wrong business partner or backing the wrong product and it goes bust on you.

The one thing I discovered and that’s what I wanted to share with you is the best way to look at your mistakes is ask yourself this question? What’s the worst thing that could happen from this mistake?  Now be forewarned your mind will go to some pretty interesting and maybe even some scary places. This is what my new colleague Noah St. John calls beware of your “head trash.” (He’s the author of the newly published book – The Secret Code of Success.) You’ve got a lot gunk up in them there hills of your mind that’s embedded many experiences good and bad from childhood.  The best way to use this exercise is to stop your mind and realistically look at the worst thing that could happen. So in my case, because that’s really why I’m writing.  I made a pretty good mistake in my last newsletter. I went through the exercise and realized probably the worst thing that could happen is those who read it thought I was a little off my rocker, or couldn’t add, or worst yet, I was lost in time… So let me tell you what my mistake was in my newsletter. (The funny thing is so far only one person caught it and told me about it.) In my main article about my workshop with Jeff Walker, I said how I went to his training 2 years ago in 1997. I’m thinking I was channeling 1997, had some great memories, but the point is I should have said it was back in 2007. So… that was my big mistake. And yes, I do have an editor who looks over my newsletter, among many other things and we still didn’t catch it. Go figure!

My moral of the story is we’re only human. I make mistakes just like the next person. I would hope you’d walk away with some great lessons-

1-     Don’t let making a mistake stop or paralyze you from taking a chance or doing something you want to do.

2-     When you make mistake, always ask yourself what’s the worst thing that can happen

3-     At all costs, fix the mistake, or mend the bridge, or figure out a way to deal with and handle the worst thing that can happen.

4-     Irony would have it, when making mistakes, lots of times you’re better off having made them simply because of the wonderful learning experience you can turn it into.

Lastly, I decided to give away a free gift for all those who caught my mistake, as a mea culpa and I’ll work on doing better next time.  I just recorded a call with Valerie Young, ChangingCourse.com.  I did this special bonus call for her students who are training to be Outside the Job Box Experts. They work with you to help you discover your passion and find the best career for you.  It was The 7 Easy Ways to Economically Get New Clients, and to Easily Boost Your New Business In A Down Economy. To access this mp3 recording, just click here.

I always try to look at mistakes now as learning opportunities, hence I wrote about it here. I’d love to hear your storiesand how you’ve made lemonade out of some lemons. Here’s to turning our mistakes into awesome learning and discovery tools….

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