Whack on The Side of the Head

Chapter Nine: TO ERR IS WRONG

By Tomasz Debicki and Ed Bonahue

To Err is Wrong

The main point of this chapter is to avoid the mentality that being wrong is bad. It emphasizes that many good things can come from your mistakes.

In the summer of 1979 Boston Red Sox first baseman, Carl Yastrzemski, hit the 3000 hit plateau. This event drew a lot of attention. When asked if the attention would go to his head, Yaz replied “ I have been up to bat 10000 times which means that I’ve been unsuccessful over 7000 times.” That means that he messed up over 70 % of the time but he was still a successful baseball player.

Is Failure Bad?

Failure and mistakes are a vital part of life. They tell you when you are doing

something wrong and need to go the other way. If we didn’t have mistakes we wouldn’t know our full potential because there were no set backs.

Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time was cut from his high school basketball team. He vowed to never be cut from any team ever again. Just think that if he wasn’t cut he would have never made the promise to himself and may never have become the best.

Is Success Good?

But that brings us to the question: Is Success Good?

Here Are some examples on how trying to hard to be successful or being right have backfired.

Summary

There are places where errors are inappropriate, but the imaginative phase of creative process isn’t that you are diverging

from the well-traveled path. A large part of creative thinking is not being

afraid to fail. As comedian/director Woody Allen put it, “ If you’re not failing every now

and again, it’s a sign you’re not trying anything very innovative.

Remember these two benefits of failure: first if you do fail you learn what doesn’t work,

second the failure gives you an opportunity to try a new approach.

Tips If you make an error use it as a stepping

stone to an idea you might not otherwise have discovered.

Differentiate between errors of commission and those of omission. The latter can be more costly then the former. If you’re not making many errors, ask “How many opportunities am I missing by not being more aggressive.”

Before embarking on an idea or project ask yourself, “What bad things could happen if we are successful.”