Learning from your mistakes

[ChrisHeggem]

As humbling as making a mistake can be, it can often provide a great learning experience (even for others).

I think it would be helpful for the group to share mistakes that they have made or have witnessed and share the lesson learned. Who knows, sharing your experience might help others from making the same mistake. :-)

[vangogh]

First let me just say I completely agree. You learn a lot more from failure than you do from success. People in business can not be afraid to make mistakes.

One mistake I made with my first business was not understanding who my customers were. I defined my market too loosely. I thought the idea was to try to cast as wide a net as possible to increase the number of potential clients. That was exactly the opposite of what you should to do. Very few products or services are going to appeal to everyone.

Better is to more tightly define who your clients or customers are so you can better appeal to them as the right choice. As you define your market you do exclude some from finding you as their idea solution, but you appeal that much more to those not excluded. You don't want to be like everyone else. You want to stand out in some way and that's much easier to do when you're not trying to appeal to everyone.

Trying to be the right choice for everyone usually leads to being the right choice for no one.

[Steve B]

I've made so many it may take a while to think of a few worth sharing. But, I also agree. Mistakes are far more memorable and a more significant learning opportunity.

[Spider]

"The trouble with success is that it makes smart people think they are infallable!" - Bill Gates. (That's from memory, so maybe Mr.Gates didn't use those actual words, but I'll credit the quote to him, anyway.)

Having had a major success, my next few projects were not so carefully orchestrated and I lost a bundle - including a deal of self-respect. Which was more damaging than the financial loss. Took a bit of overcoming but taught me a very good lesson, well-voiced by Bill Gates.

[huggytree]

when i first went into business i had the mind set of being $1 cheaper than my competition...it didnt work...i barely sold a job until i gave up on price and repriced myself where i wanted to be, not where i thought i had to be....i then focused on Service, but found the best way to go is to focus on QUALITY since service is something people expect, not something they shop for

dont bother advertising in the yellow pages.....all price shoppers, wastes more time than the few hundred you make

ive had advertising failures, but no real business failures



i havent made any major mistakes...its just a steady evolution.....the Price,Service,Quality thing sounds like a common way most people go into business...the ones who fail are the ones who dont evolve and stay in the 'price' mindset

[Harold Mansfield]

I continue to learn a great deal with every new project. It's not so much about the actual job, technically I'm always learning stuff because stuff keeps changing or improving. It's more about the people.
I went for months with every project and client being easy, and smooth sailing and then got hit with 3 or 4 in a row that ended up being unexpected problems. That was a big wake up call and I realized that the previous months without drama were just luck. Dealing with problems and putting out fires teaches you far more than you can learn any other way. It's invaluable to being able to "stick and move" on the fly and minimizing future mistakes that could cost you money.

As one of my old supervisors used to say. "We got to keep it moving". IOW: Always be your best, but sometimes you will have a bad one. Don't let it cost you the next one.

I'm starting to find out that there are really 2 kinds of people that I deal with. Those that have no idea what to do (and don't want to spend time learning) and have respect for what you do, and those that know a few things from 6 years ago, or have an unrealistic view of cost based on 3rd world standards...and have absolutely no respect for your time and knowledge. There is really no middle ground.

I find that more and more I turn down work from the second type of person but dealing with them has taught me a lot about where I need to be diligent about protecting myself.

Dealing with people doing web work is not much different from dealing with people as a limo driver. There's a lot of people out there that are just looking to get you, drink your booze, trash the car, get you to run off the books and use the promise of a good tip or future business to get free work from you now. They usually get sketchy when it's time to pay and you have to strong arm them to get them to respect you.

Then there's the people that need you for a wedding or special occasion and just want you to show up on time in a clean car. A lot easier to work with. They pay on time. Tip well, and you don't mind going the extra mile and throwing in a couple of bottles of champagne from your stash in the trunk and letting them use the good crystal.

Believe it or not, my experience as a limo driver on the Las Vegas Strip taught me a lot about dealing with people and business, because each run is an individual business transaction and each client has a different needs than the one before. On any given Fri or Sat night you can have 20-25 different business transactions.

You are basically running you own business and are responsible for your equipment, money, expenses, following different laws, regulations, kick backs, fees, and one mistake could cost you hundreds in a matter of seconds or loose your entire take for the night and ruin your week. If you can handle that on a nightly basis, you can handle a business.