Nine years ago this month I opened Masterpiece Ice Sculptures, Inc. When you look at my business now its easy to think it was easy, the studio is meticulously organized and production flows smoothly. We have many happy customers and a well respected name in the community. We even make some money here and there. We gross over 200k a year in frozen water. Its pretty neat. Behind the scenes though is a history of business mistakes that have been extracted and made into success. Most of my blog posts are just me sharing what has happened in my business life. Maybe you can glean something positive from it. This one is no different.
I remember my mistakes. I remember not getting a contract when I put a flatbed truck up for consignment. I came back a few months later to check on it only to find out it had been sold and no one knew where my $4000 was. That was a 4K mistake. I remember when a design flaw in an ice sculpture caused it to fall from a stage and break a baby stroller. Thank the Lord there was no baby in it. I remember loosing my temper on a rather soft skinned employee. The next day he quit.
Lets put some perspective on this. The 4K mistake was almost 9 years ago and the "lost temper" was last month. The encouragement for you is that mistakes keep happening, but that means your are breathing and even more than that, you may be prospering "IF" the mistakes are turned into success.
I remember many of my mistakes and failures. I kinda of laugh at myself. When some people say its better to forget mistakes, I disagree, and say its better to remember the mistake and what I learned from it. Every mistake has a twinge of joy to it. Mistakes challenge our character flushing the true depth of ourselves to the surface. To be honest, what rises to the surface is a lot of pond scum. It poses an opportunity (mistakes become opportunities) to cleanse yourself of scum and rot and decay and provide room for new growth. John Maxwell Quotes " Experience is not the best teacher, evaluated experience is" and that goes the same for mistakes. Evaluate mistakes, pull the successful strand out and keep it for later use. Try to separate the mistake from who you are. Remember the mistakes, let them stay in a mental (or written file) and pull the success strand out. Embed the success strand in your psyche, in your being, in your actions, thoughts and decisions and watch your business thrive!
Make lists ( I love lists) of your mistakes. The more mistakes you make the more successful you can become. That is the reason I share this with you. Its so that you can take the mistakes of your life and pull that success strand out of it. Then stretch it often.
Join the conversation, leave a few mistakes you have made and what you have learned from them. We all can learn from each other this way.
What do we need to know?
1. Mistakes never end, we will be making them until we die, get used to it.
2. Mistakes are opportunities
John Maxwell said "When you fail, while you are down there pick something up"
3. Pull the success strand out and stretch it often
4. Mistakes do not define who you are, what you learn from them does.
5. Spend some time evaluating your mistakes, really, write them down!
Successful Mistake List
1. 4k mistake
2. Ice sculpture fell from stage
3. Lost temper lost employee
4. Ice carving melted all over table on to a homeowners floor.
There are many many more!
I especially like "what do we need to know" #4. For too much of my life I let them define me as a failure. I now try to see mistakes as critical steps on my success journey.
ReplyDeleteGreat post - Keep up the good advice Jeff.