Written by: Rachel Tindall, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
No one wakes up thinking, “Today I’m going to make a bunch of mistakes.” Let alone, “It’s going to be awesome because I can’t wait to grow.”
We would all love to do our growing, especially as business owners, in a clean and orderly fashion. No one gets mad, no one accidentally misses a deadline (for work or timecards or invoices), and everyone feels satisfied the entire time.
As we know, though, that’s not how life works. It’s definitely not how business works - even for people who have degrees and years of experience. We ALL make mistakes!
And you know what? Those mistakes are valuable.
They might be uncomfortable or painful. They might even cost us money. But despite whatever negative repercussions the mistakes cause, they almost always benefit us, too, even when it feels impossible to see at the moment.
5 Reasons to Make Mistakes
When I started my business, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I knew some basics, but that’s pretty much it. You can imagine the vertical learning curve of actually trying to make money. And then when I figured it out, there had to be a way for people to get that money to me.
With no one guiding me, I spent hours upon hours researching and asking questions in forums of people who barely knew more than me. And then, I went to different groups where there were entrepreneurs making millions, and it felt like I should already know what I was asking to even be participating with them.
Mistakes were made—lots of them. As a recovering perfectionist (because being a business owner will pretty much knock that right out of you), I was overwhelmed by the amount I didn’t know but needed. I naively thought that if I read enough and learned enough from others, I could come out unscathed – I wouldn’t make the mistakes other people had made because I knew better!
Have you ever had that feeling?
I was completely and utterly wrong.
And when I accepted that I was going to make mistakes, the entire business process changed for me. It changed a lot of things in my personal life, too! Understanding that there’s no such thing as perfection and that being successful doesn’t mean the same to everyone was a game-changer. I owe those realizations to making mistakes.
So, whether you’re in the beginning stages of your business, or in a painful growth period, or anywhere you feel mistakes are holding you back, it’s time to shift how you’re thinking about them.
Mistakes can be good for you and your business — here’s why:
You Can’t Avoid It. You’re Human
I wanted to start out with an obvious point because it’s the one that often sticks the hardest. You cannot avoid mistakes. No matter what you do, things happen. We’re all humans here, living this one life we’ve got.
It’s a natural thing to make mistakes, whether they’re decisions that should have been different, events we expected to have different reactions or just plain accidents we couldn’t control. It’s okay, and there are ways to mend almost every situation.
You Learn
If you don’t love learning, being a business owner probably isn’t the job for you. I say this in the kindest way possible because I know for many people it’s a lifelong dream – the idea of being your own boss, making your own schedule, and making a lot of money doing something you love.
But business is learning. The learning part is pretty much a full-time gig alongside actually running the thing. Even if you have years of experience, you’re constantly running into new challenges and working with new people who have different perspectives than you. With so much new comes mistakes. Sometimes even the ones you declared you’d never make (because you did so much research!). Sometimes ones that cost a lot of money.
You know what, though? Mistakes that hurt at the moment (like spending a lot of money on something you don’t actually need to be there) teach you such important lessons moving forward. The first time you spend money from your business that feels “wasted,” you’ll change how you decide to purchase things and how you vet expenses.
All the things you wish you could take back help shape your processes and teach you things you probably didn’t realize you needed to know (or things you thought you knew enough about but clearly didn’t).
You Grow
When you’re learning so much, you’re constantly growing. I’d venture to guess that any business owner doesn’t look at things the same from year to year. In the beginning, when the growth is so fast and so staggering, you probably aren’t even looking at things the same from month to month.
It’s truly incredible how much we can grow in such a short amount of time. Many times, you can even feel it. You look around one day, and your to-do list looks different, and another day, you realize that you can’t do all the things, so you become okay with getting help even though it costs money.
When you’ve been around the block a few times, more zeros behind invoices freak you out less, and you can fathom making large investments because you understand that return on investment (ROI) isn’t just about money in the bank.
Part of your worldview is shaped by the learning you do every day. An equally large part is formed by mistakes you’ve made and how you react. When things don’t go as planned, you realize that you can trust yourself because you figured out what happened and how to better approach it next time. No, it doesn’t feel great to lose a potential client because you were scared to be upfront about your price on a call. Or do work for a sliver of the price you want to charge because you feel like it’s the only work you can get (it’s not, but in-the-moment you don’t feel that way when you’ve got bills to pay). These mistakes happen, and the only real thing we can do is learn and move on so we can improve the next time.
You Can Document And Update Processes
How many times have you done something in a weird way that worked out really well, but when you went to do it again, you have no idea what you did? And of course, it’s not written down because you were SO SURE you were going to remember.
Businesses need documentation and repeatable processes.
Documentation makes everyone’s lives easier and better (and, in the long run, enables you to make more money). No one wants to talk about it because, let's be honest, it’s not a “sexy” part of the business.
I spent almost an hour earlier today changing a ridiculously detailed PowerPoint from one font to another and changing every heading to a slightly different shade of the same color. For most people, that probably sounds cringeworthy. As a technical writer, I didn’t mind. It perfected the look of the document to be totally on brand and presentable for training purposes.
This documentation will be around for a long time, and it felt good to be a part of making sure the new people in that specific company will be able to see, from Day 1, a reflection of the brand in every single document they open.
But the original version of the document was awful. I mean, it was really confusing and hard to read. Mistake central for new employees who can’t understand the only tangible thing someone gave them as a training tool. Yikes.
It’s growing pains like these (via mistakes) that show the obvious perk of prioritizing documentation, even if it’s not a fun task.
You Can Advise Others Better
As a business owner, I ask lots of questions to people who are farther along than me, and lots of people ask me questions, too. While there are millions of businesses out there, unfortunately, many fail. When you meet someone who appears to be doing well, it feels natural to be curious.
The happy truth is that some of the best learning we do is by mistakes. Happy because you overcame the obstacle and have moved forward as a better, more knowledgeable person. The best advice you give will be from mistakes you’ve made because those lessons were the hardest learned.
All-in-all, mistakes can hurt. They can be awkward or weird or whatever emotion you feel from seeing something go sideways based on one tiny detail, despite your best effort and planning. Mistakes will change your life – they’ll make it better because they make you better.
You’re the star of your own show, and as long as you’re human, you may as well embrace the eventuality of making mistakes and learn where you can.
Rachel Tindall, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Rachel Tindall is a Writer and Writing Coach at Capturing Your Confidence. Her lifelong love of learning inspired her to pursue education in writing, as well as teaching. Throughout her years of teaching at the university and community college levels, she has developed a strong desire to continue to be the best learner and educator she can be – a coach. Rachel uses intentional motivation and empowerment to facilitate growth for driven writers and creatives on their journey to becoming unstoppable dream-getters. Building confidence in her colleagues and students is at the heart of all she does.
