Are
You Making the Right Mistakes?
Who's wealthier,
A or B?
A. Bill Gates
as we know him despite the mistakes Microsoft has made in software
development and its legal defence?
B. An alternative-world
Bill Gates who instead of founding Microsoft finished Harvard
(with high honors) and became a world-class, bug-free programmer?
#A, right?
The concept of Bill Gates writing perfect computer code probably
made some of you techies laugh. But the "perfect coder" Bill
Gates would not likely make more than $150,000 a year plus stock
options, right? Few programmers make that much, perfect coders
or not.
I made up this
example to demonstrate a principle I've never seen described
in self improvement and motivational works but which has been
a great help (and -- mostly -- a comfort) to me.
The Law of
Escalating Errors
Let's recap.
Every decent
self-improvement book or tape will teach you to learn from your
mistakes so you don't repeat them, right?
What if you
made all possible mistakes where you are working now, learned
from them all and didn't repeat them. You'd be perfect, right?
Wrong. You'd
be Choice B Bill Gates, producing perfect software code and never
knowing that in another universe our net worth is greater than
120 million Americans combined.
Choice A Our
World Bill Gates makes mistakes. He's probably made more mistakes
than anyone else alive, and much bigger mistakes.
He's the wealthiest
person alive because he'll never be perfect. He not only learns
from his mistakes, he pushes himself to a higher level and makes
NEW errors!
That's the key to the The Law of Escalating Errors.
Yes, of course
learn from your mistakes and as much as human possible don't
repeat them -- but keep yourself rising to new levels of ambition,
achievement, experience and development.
The Principle
of Escalating Errors applies in all areas of our lives.
The first time
you went out on a date, didn't you make mistakes? As you gained
experience you made fewer mistakes on first dates and eventually
went steady . . . got engaged . . . got married . . . and some
of you
married again. You made mistakes every step of the way. You probably have many
regrets but I'm sure you're glad you didn't take a vow of chastity after the
embarrassments of your first date.
Making mistakes
at a higher level of functioning is a sign of growth.
Of course,
this does apply only to *higher* order mistakes. If you're 25
and never smoked a cigarette and then you start to smoke, you're
not progressing. You're making new mistakes at a lower level,
not higher.
That's worse than standing still.
Some people
like to refer to this processing of progressing through making
higher order mistakes as "getting out of your comfort zone."
I don't like
that much. It sounds so . . . uncomfortable. I'd rather emphasize
progress, goal achievement, adventure, excitement and fun.
Whether it's
learning to play the piano, starting an Internet business , looking
for a partner in love, traveling to Rio de Janeiro or doing many
other of life's great activities, the worse mistake you can do
is . . .
nothing.
Wouldn't perfection
be boring?
I hope I never
make the mistake of not making the right mistakes.
----------------------------------------------------------
Richard Stooker recently launched the ezine and
web site for The Millionaire Within You. You're
invited to visit:
http://www.millionairewithinyou.com
(update:website no longer available)
And subscribe
to The Millionaire Within You ezine
by sending blank email to:
millionairewithinyou-subscribe@topica.com
Write to Richard
directly at: rikstook@wans.net
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