Most of us grow up with the message that making mistakes is bad. So did I. I’ve always disliked making mistakes and failing at things I start. That’s a shame, because the lesson we should learn growing up is actually this: make lots of mistakes and get better!
Every time I go to the gym and train my muscles, I make sure they ‘fail’. That causes tiny damage to them. The muscles then respond by adapting and getting stronger. That’s how it works: fail, adapt, and become stronger.
We discovered what didn’t work
Mistakes are the reason we’re here today. We’re probably here because of countless mistakes made over billions of years. Evolution taught us that lesson. We’re here because we figured out what works. But maybe even more so because we figured out what doesn’t work. We failed and adapted. Failed again and adapted again.
Inventions made by accident
Did you know that some of the greatest inventions were made by accident? They’re the result of mistakes! Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the power of X-rays while working on something completely different. Ever used a post-it note? The result of a mistake! In 1968, a 3M researcher was trying to make a super-strong adhesive. Instead, he accidentally created a very weak glue that comes off easily when pulled from a surface. No one saw potential in the weak, failed glue. Until another researcher noticed that the little pieces of paper were ideal bookmarks for his books. They stuck but didn’t damage the pages. The first pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians look very different from the ones later declared world wonders. We went to space, but not without the loss of many lives and materials.
Make mistakes and learn
When I finished school and started working, I made a lot of mistakes. Since then, I’ve never stopped making them. But somehow, I also did more things right. And I consciously tried not to make the same mistake twice. I learned and got better. We don’t like seeing our children make mistakes. Yet we should encourage them to try things they can’t yet do. So they make mistakes, learn, and improve. We should also change how we deal with mistakes and failures. Generally, we don’t post pictures of our mistakes and failures on social media. Only the successes, usually with an extra glossy finish. That reinforces the idea that making mistakes is… well… ‘wrong’. Don’t be afraid to show the cracks and scratches. They show you’re not afraid to learn and grow. Leonard Cohen sang it already:
“There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.”
Good luck today! May you make many mistakes… Raymond te Veldhuis CheckData and DataJobs.nl