If you’re doing things right in 2017, you’ll be doing things wrong.
Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense does it? At least it doesn’t until you really think about it.
None of us like to make mistakes, which is ironic considering we only find out how to do something “right” by first doing something “wrong”. Again, think about it. Everything you now take for granted and do with aplomb you first failed at a multitude of times before you mastered it. Walking, talking, riding a bike, catching a ball, driving a car…the list is endless.
Business is no different. Line up two business owners, A being very successful, B being the opposite. You can bet your bottom dollar one of the major differentiators between the two is A made a lot more mistakes than B.
The bottom line is the person not willing to make a mistake is living one.
The thing is, as necessary as mistakes are to your success, there’s an associated cost to them if they’re not handled intelligently. Mistakes can make or break a business and it all depends on the owner. Some owners are smart enough to evaluate mistakes and modify their approach, most just “rinse and repeat”. Others give up on the objective all together, falsely believing the mistake was a “sign” the outcome wasn’t possible.
Successful people don’t think like unsuccessful people. They did at one point, but somewhere along the way, a light bulb went on – and they realised if they’re to amount to anything more than ordinary, they had to unlearn.
Unlearning is the ultimate differentiator between the “haves” and the “have-nots” of entrepreneurial life. Most people aren’t even aware they need to unlearn. A much smaller minority do but are not willing to. And a relatively tiny fraction, the 0.1% who are often lambasted for their success, make unlearning a priority in their lives. As Mark Twain pointed out, “Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned”.
One thing’s for sure; many people are so rigidly invested in what they already know, they’re not interested in what they don’t know. And here’s why that’s nothing short of a tragedy: our lives begin to end the day we become convinced by the extent of our education.
The smartest thing you’ll do, is to leverage and model the success of others. If that’s all you did for the rest of your career, you’ll leave your industry peers and the woefully underachieving masses behind. And you’ll mitigate yourself, to an enormous degree, to the mistakes which carry the highest cost, or worse still, are fatal.
“Never be the first person to do something, be the second”, said David Bowie, a somewhat ironic statement from one of most innovative and progressive musical artists of all time.
Our lives begin to end the day we become convinced by the extent of our education.
The smartest thing you’ll do, is to leverage and model the success of others.
Christian Simpson is the UK’s leading coach and mentor to business owners and entrepreneurs. For COMPLIMENTARY ACCESS to tried, tested and proven entrepreneurial success strategies, click here
