You messed up? Congratulations!

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We may not like it but it’s true. We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. I’m sure you can think of lost cases, unhappy clients, and failed projects you’d like to forget, but forget them at your peril.

I don’t dwell on them, but I still remember some of my mistakes. Like the client I was prepping for a statement. He didn’t speak English so I had my secretary translate. I told him not to say something during the statement because it could be interpreted as an admission of fault.

Sure enough, he said the very thing I told him not to say.

I couldn’t believe it. I shook my head and muttered the word “stupid”. Unfortunately, after the statement, I learned that the client spoke some English and understood what I said.

Yeah, he wasn’t too happy with me. But I learned a valuable lesson that day. Some clients really are stupid.

Anyway, learn from your mistakes. And learn from the mistakes of others.

Jim Rohn said, “It’s too bad failures don’t give seminars. Wouldn’t that be valuable? If you meet a guy who has messed up his life for forty years, you’ve just got to say, “John, if I bring my journal and promise to take good notes, would you spend a day with me?”

Until that happens, you can learn from the mistakes of others through observation, and by reading biographies and watching documentaries.

Or, you could come hang out with me.

Despite some mistakes, I built my practice through referrals

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