“At any given moment, on any given day, somebody in the federal government is screwing up.” Sec. of State, Robert Gates

Oh so true.  We all screw up.  Sometimes those screw-ups are massive, sometimes they’re little screw ups.  But the question is what are you doing about it?  Now, when I ask this question — I’m not asking what you are doing to cover it up or move on from it. I’m asking what is your take away?  What have you learned from your screw up?

So what? Now what?  It’s a phrase I try to live by.  When I use this phrase I simply mean (in this context) So… you screwed up… now, what are you going to learn from it?  We can’t change the past.  We can’t change the errors we’ve made, but we can learn from them.  So I understand that nobody I know goes around saying “look how I screwed up!” and “please criticize me.”  We don’t always like to hear those harsh words- especially when we’ve REALLY messed up, but, as with most everything in life, we can learn from our mistakes.

Unfortunately, the best and most memorable lessons usually come during a time when we’ve really messed up, or when life has knocked us to our knees.  I can look at my life and tell you with certainty that the times grew the most and learned the most were probably the most painful times in my life.  I look back on those years and part of me says “nope… don’t want to go through that again,” but the other part of me appreciates the lessons and maturity I gained through that painful time.

Businesses can do the same thing.  They can learn from their mistakes.  Heck, I’d even tell them to embrace their mistakes– because mistakes are valuable. Mistakes have the ability to spur you to action and to teach you lessons.  Mistakes shape you and show you what works and what doesn’t.  But, knowing is only half the battle – what you do with those lessons and how you react are what shapes your businesses personality.

So here’s my question- are you a business that ignores the negative or do you take the negative and use it to improve your business?

Action: Think of 1 time you messed up and share the lesson you learned.

Final thought: Mistakes are valuable.