24th February, 2023
When I started using a pen in my primary school, and I made a mistake, I would try hard to erase it before submitting it to my teacher.
Sometimes, I used a chalk to clean my mistake but it used to re-appear later.
So I began to use saliva, it worked at times, but only to leave holes in my books.
My teachers then used to punish me for being outrageously dirty.
But I used to wonder, all I had tried to do was to cover my error.
One day, a kind hearted teacher called me aside and he said,
“Anytime you make a mistake, just cross it and move on” .
He further added” Trying to erase your mistakes would only damage your book to nothing.
I told him in protest that I don’t want people to see my mistake.
My loving teacher laughed and said “Trying to erase your mistake will make more people know about your mess and that stigma will be for life”.
A great lesson indeed.
In his insightful book, ‘Principles,’ legendary hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio, writes at length about his views on mistakes.
He believes that if employees are punished or fired for making mistakes, then they will naturally cover up their tracks, leading to potentially disastrous outcomes.
To help circumvent this, Dalio and his team created a “mistake log” – a tool that employees of Bridgewater Capital are required to use, including senior leadership. The idea is for employees to share their mistakes so that they and others can learn from them. And while making a mistake at Bridgewater is not a fireable offense, failing to log your mistake in the mistake log is.
Have you made some mistakes in life?
Don’t expose yourself as a result of trying to cover your mistakes.
A mistake should be our teacher, not our undertaker.
A mistake is a delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.
Better things are ahead of you.
Don’t try to erase your mistakes, learn your lesson from it, then just cross it over, move on and stay blessed forever.