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