EMPOWER YOURSELF: Learn from Past Mistakes

Photo and blog by Sharman Dow

Learning from past mistakes is a lesson many of us seem to overlook, thus repeating the same misfortune over and over again. But wouldn’t it be great if we could take a moment and reflect on what went wrong and ask ourselves, “How can I improve so as not to make the same mistake again?”

Past Mistakes are a Great Teacher

So many times in my sales career I’ve had moments of great success in obtaining and winning a client that I worked hard to acquire. It was always such a feeling of great accomplishment and a thrill to share with my co-workers. I found I was always willing to share my moments of glory with my colleagues, yet the real lessons in my business came when I failed to win over the client. I learned so much more from those botched attempts as I reflected on the steps that led to the disappointment of losing an account.

Past mistakes are a great teacher. Learning from them is something everyone should gleam from for the future to grow into success.

Failure is a Great Lesson

I once took a class on how to raise responsible children and learned some great pearls of wisdom from the instructor. He stated something that at the time sounded a bit harsh, but in retrospect he gave me a great lesson for myself. He shared how important it was for us, as parents, to teach responsibility to our children. He said, “Give them a task and hope they fail at it.”

WOW! Hoping our children would fail – that struck me as peculiar at first. However, what he was trying to say is if they succeed at the project, then they learned a little thing, but if your child failed to do what you required of him or her, then they would learn so much more. It’s the same for you and me in our professional careers.

Failure is a great lesson in business and can always be turned into a positive teaching for the future. Learning from past mistakes is your key to creating more success in your profession.

Turn Every Mistake into an Opportunity to Grow

Early in my career, I recall a time in working with a business associate who partnered with me on an account. She had knowledge in an area of insurance I was less experienced in, and so I asked her to join me in my attempt to win the account. I had a long, drawn-out conversation with this business associate, in which I took extensive notes at our pre-strategy meeting. The steps we determined for each of us to manage were extremely important for winning over our mutual prospect.

My mistake was not following-up in writing out a recap of our conversation and the responsibilities each of us had agreed to manage. A week later when we met with our mutual prospect, I had found my business partner had not completed her tasks and quickly pointed the finger at me. My notes were very clear, but I did not communicate and recap my expectations when our pre-strategy meeting had drawn to a close. She left me with egg on my face, but a great lesson was learned that day.

As I reflected on the steps of what went wrong, I realized I had not followed-up with her in writing to clarify our responsibilities. I made assumptions about her capabilities and accountabilities. I relied on hearsay from our meeting. A simple recap in writing of the meeting would have prevented any misunderstandings. What I learned from this past mistake became invaluable for my future business dealings.

Here is the lesson for you: learn from your past mistakes by reviewing and taking time to reflect on what went wrong, then determine never to do it again. That day I learned my lesson and never repeated the same mistake. Don’t beat yourself up over your mishaps, as everyone makes them. Instead, determine to grow and learn from your past mistakes, and success will call itself into your life.

Sharman Dow is the founder of the Empower Women’s Conference, coming October 22^nd to Orange County. Register today!