November 12, 2021

The $600,000 Mistake

One of the wonderful things about having a daily mailing list with tons readers is that I know almost instantly when I touch a nerve.

Yesterday was one of those days.

I sent a message about failure being the path to wisdom and my inbox filled up with replies like:

“I needed to hear this today”
“Whew, I needed that”
“This came at the perfect time”
“Amen!”

(Thanks a million to everyone who took the time to reply! Knowing when one of these crazy messages helped is what keeps me going.)

Since this topic seems to resonate so strongly, I thought I’d share one of my favorite failure quotes from the business world:

“Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?”

– Thomas John Watson Sr., former CEO of IBM

So great, right?

Here’s the thing...

Failure is a feature, not a bug.

As long as you learn from your mistake, and can come back tomorrow to try again, you’re doing fine.

Hang in there :-)

Yours,

—J