Mistakes Happen

Mistakes Happen – My column from The Capitol Newsletter:FROM THE EDITOR
“But what if I make a mistake?” Will asked.
Gilan threw back his head and laughed. “A mistake? One mistake? You should be so lucky. You’ll make dozens! I made four or five on my first day alone! Of course you’ll make mistakes. Just don’t make any of them twice. If you do mess things up, don’t try to hide it. Don’t try to rationalize it. Recognize it and admit it and learn from it. We never stop learning, none of us.”
― John Flanagan, Erak’s Ransom

Howdy.  I certainly make my share of mistakes. I sometimes feel I make a lot more than my share, but I always try to learn from them. For example, last month I made a good one. It happened at the gym in the morning after playing racquetball. I had showered and was just about done toweling off. The guy next to me steps out of his stall and says to me pretty unhappily, “hey, you just used my towel.” I had inadvertently taken his towel from the hook besides mine. What could I do? I couldn’t give it back. I apologized sincerely and offered my unused towel to him. He begrudgedly took it as his choices to dry off were extremely limited. I felt terribly as it was obviously a very uncomfortable action for him to take. Even though it was a very clean towel, this guy didn’t know me or trust me and towels are a bit… intimate. Oh well, what could I do? Well, I couldn’t do anything more than I did, but going forward I won’t make that same mistake again. I now put my locker key on top of the towel and pay more attention to my actions.

We all goof up, we all put our feet in our mouth and do things we wish we could fly around the Earth backward and undo. But that’s part of life and such an important part of our growth. The goal in life and business is not to not make mistakes, it’s to learn from them and grow from them. Most mistakes we make in business come from experimenting, trying something different and stretching our limits. We fail all the time, but what is the alternative? Playing it safe? Never risk? Do what we always do? That is the surest way to never grow and never to achieve great results.
I look forward to a great summer here at Capitol Lighting. I’m excited for our renewed emphasis on our outreach to our Pro’s and prospecting. We’ll have some great new marketing offering and talking points to engage these exceptionally important clients and show them the love. I’m sure we’ll make some mistakes along the way, but the results will be worth it.
Have a terrific month of July. Stay cool all.
-E