Everybody makes mistakes. Almost everyone has regrets.
For me, I find that these days my Gen-Y ADD tendencies cause a lot problems. I’m usually satisfied with getting the gist of things, not really caring for looking into the details. This carelessness combined with thinking I’ve got the memory of an elephant has led to some big mistakes at work.
I get so focused on just completing the task that I often forget to do the task well. Missing a tiny important detail can be costly. Each mistake I make reminds me to be extra careful when completing my tasks.
What is a (big) mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it? What can others learn from your experience? What are your regrets?
Biggest mistake?… Let’s see… I can think of a few, but I will just name one. My fourth year of college my tuition bill after scholarships for one semester was $7,000. This included some cost that I didn’t pay for the previous semester. I applied for several student loans and was rejected. My parents attempted to cosign for those loans, and still I was rejected. As a last resort I pulled out two credit cards and maxed them out. There’s nothing like $7,000 loan with a average interest rate of 19%! That was three years ago. To this day I am still paying off that mistake. For the remaining two years in college I managed to negotiate with my creditor to pay off the monthly interest and finance charges until I graduated. Eight months out of college and I am in the position to pay off the credit cards and get rid of them. I feel free. I am kind of grateful for that mistake. It taught me a lot. No I have actual student loans to pay off. Until that day comes, it’s beans and rice.
Thanks for sharing Erik. All my peers in school right now, as well as myself, need to learn from this.
My biggest mistakes were probably my biggest success. At least thats how I see it now like that. I agree with hugh you don’t have to see as a mistake but a lesson. I quit school to go work for the kirby co. selling vacuums door to door. NOT FUN! but the lessons I got from the owner and the company were probably better than what I would have learned in college.
Any time you make a mistake at something say to yourself sweet that’s not how you do that NOW I know, and I won’t do it again.
Thanks for your comment Wilson! If you could go back and relive that part of your life, would you make a different decision? What would you do differently if you could?
Being delusional in thinking I am smarting than normal in investing in stocks and real estate! Loved losing $30,000 in two weeks one time. Not really. ouch.
Wow that it a lot of moolah. What would you have done differently? Or rather, what did you learn from that experience?
I learned that investing has A LOT to do with luck, and it’s very hard to time the markets. Just invest for the long run, and have the discipline to take profits! This is the whole point of The Samurai Fund, to prove it’s just luck.
Next time take 6 months off before deciding to sell.
I don’t recall the last huge mistake I made, but as I’ve gotten older, I now realize that there’s something to be learned from every mistake. I used to get so mad at myself, but now when I make a mistake, small or large, I analyze it. Why did I make the mistake? How could I have prevented it? What can I do next time to ensure I don’t make the same mistake again? This has really helped me to move on and not dwell on mistakes. Treat them as learning experiences.
Hugh, I’m dying to know… what’s your secret?
It’s so easy for me to dwell on mistakes. How do you make yourself sit through and analyze?
Haha there’s no secret of course, just hard work, like anything else. When I said I used to get mad at myself, I mean I used to let some mistakes ruin my day, which was really bad. I guess the most important thing you can do is ask yourself what you can do to fix the mistake. Answer – usually nothing. It’s in the past, it’s done. I think it helps that I’m a big believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason, whether immediately apparent or not. You just have to trust in that.