“Experience is always the hardest teacher because the test is given first and the lesson is given afterwards.” John Maxwell
Making mistakes helps us learn what works and what doesn’t work.
Mistakes are like scar tissue on the brain. We rarely forget the mistakes which cost us a great deal of time, money or damage one of our long-standing relationships.
Instead of ruminating about what we do that is wrong, however, we should instead take a page out of the book of the most successful entrepreneurs from my Rich Habits research – the Self-Made Dreamers.
There were 119 Self-Made Dreamers in my Rich Habits Study. These were individuals who devoted their lives to a dream. Sometimes, however, that dream was a nightmare. Especially in the beginning.
The early part of every Dreamer’s journey is riddled with mistake after mistake. The real fear is the fear of failure – too many mistakes and you run out of money, which means you run out of time.
So, the Dreamers in my study took their mistakes very seriously. They went to great lengths to figure out what they did wrong. Through this arduous mistake analysis, they gained knowledge from their mistakes. With this new knowledge, they went back at it.
Eventually, they got it right, meaning they figured out which actions produced the results they desired. Then they did something that cemented their ultimate success – they documented exactly what worked and what didn’t work.
This is called a Process. And, as I found in my study, successful entrepreneurs become successful entrepreneurs because their studious analysis of their mistakes give rise to processes that became integrated into the very heart of their business.
Every time a new workable process is discovered, these Self-Made Dreamers meticulously document every detail of it. And then, everyone who works with them, is then required to follow each new process.
These tried and true processes become organization-wide habits.
The self-made millionaire-Dreamers in my study continued this experimentation-driven, process-finding approach until they had a wealth of proven processes that solidified their business model and, eventually made them multi-millionaires. The average Self-Made Dreamer in my study accumulated $7.4 million over 12 years, following this formula for success.
Successful entrepreneurs don’t hate their mistakes. They love their mistakes. After all, if it wasn’t for those mistakes, they’d never stumble upon the processes that help them transform their dream into reality.
So, if you’re an entrepreneur, love your mistakes. Mistakes are what dreams are made of.
About Thomas C. Corley
Speak Your Mind