The Person Who Doesn’t Make Mistakes Is Unlikely to Make Anything

Recently we were given the opportunity to complete a significant design project for one of our customers. As the designer placed her energy into coming up with some concepts. She felt she had some good work to present to the customer.

The designs were different and presented some new ideas that pushed the boundaries of what the customer might like.

Needless to say the customer hated it.

Cool no problem, pull back the reigns and take more of a conventional path and re-submit. You guessed it they loved it and the project was completed on budget, on time and everyone was happy.

Now you might say if we had taken a conventional path to start with our margins might have been better and the customer might have been happier.

You would be correct, you also would be wrong.

Nothing ever changes without people making mistakes and pushing the limits. This is the quickest way a successful designer becomes an average designer. It is the quickest way a successful business becomes an average business.

In the day to day running of anything people need to be able to make mistakes. Especially when they are pushing the limits of their craft. Of course you want happy customers, but not at the expense of standing still.

For you to be a leader and an innovator you must try things that might not work. This is where true business growth will come from. Challenge yourself and the people around you to try things. Encourage people to push the boundaries and experience failure along the way.

Think about this; Thomas Edison said; “Of the 200 light bulbs that didn’t work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt.”