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Inspiration

Huge mistakes will happen, dive in anyway

oothing quotes about mistakes abound on the cost a company he co-founded hundreds of thousands of
internet these days. For example, there's Albert dollars. The firm almost folded, and while his colleagues
Einstein's comment, "Anyone who has never understood his error was unintentional, relationships
S made a mistake has never tried anything new." became so frayed that he and the company he loved had
And Norman Vincent Peale, the clergyman and author to part ways.
who popularized the concept of positive thinking, urged
people to "forget the mistakes of the past and press on to So what I'm getting at here is that mistakes are going to
the greater achievements of the future." happen whether you live a cautious life or take reasonable
risks to reach for the stars. Some of those may be significant
This sort of encouragement is, on the whole, helpful. enough to do damage to your reputation and your bottom
However, let's not forget that mistakes, while extremely line. And when that happens pleasing platitudes aren't
useful in hindsight if we learn from them, can be the stuff enough to get you through it and back on track.
of nightmares.
When the worst happens
Troubled memories
When what feels like the worst happens, you'll need at least
Most everyone has some teacher in the distant past who one safe person, someone who has your back and will help
instead of calling on eager students whose hands were you devise a plan to implement immediately to remedy
raised, surveyed the classroom to spot the most timid, the situation. Owning the mistake and not justifying it or
ill-equipped students to embarrass. Or what about that denying it, restitution, a public apology, and disciplinary
boss who picked people apart for even the smallest errors, action if someone you supervise was responsible will
which traumatized those who were singled out as well as likely be necessary.
those forced to watch in silence if they wanted to remain
employed. Experiences like those can make people afraid Sometimes the damage can be contained quickly with
to make mistakes, large or small. no major fallout. Other times it will take longer to build
back trust. Occasionally, repercussions are so severe that
So we check, double-check, strive for perfection, play it you have to forge an entirely new career. We never want
safe, pass up opportunities that could stretch us for fear of this to happen to ourselves or our colleagues. But if it does
messing up what we already have. Despite this, we, or our happen to you, remember our community is full of sharp
colleagues, make mistakes. It's inevitable. And sometimes people smart enough to see when a mistake is honest, give
those mistakes are huge. you the benefit of the doubt and help you get past it.
Take the time one of our writers plagiarized an article
published by another publication. It wasn't exactly the
same word for word, but the two documents were so
similar there was no doubt our writer had reworked the
article rather than research and write an original story. Kate Gillespie, President and CEO
Or another time, a friend of a friend made an error that

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