The Greatness of Mistakes
This article is written by Mohammad Eslim, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.
Our world moves so fast it became very much harder to make an impact and survive. In this world, mistakes are not to be taken into consideration. For mistakes can cause crushes, those of which can lead any of us down the highway only to be walked over by an 18-wheeler.
Things about human mind, is that it craves to see perfection, even in this imperfect world. It came to my mind how much we seek perfection and despise making mistakes. Tim Draper, in start-up 2017, layed it out simply saying, “It's ok!”[2]
So i took it upon me to write about it in hope of raising awareness of this topic.
Mistakes are often identified as acts and judgments that are misguided or wrong. [3] So how did us, simple yet complex creatures, forbid what is in our very nature?
For how could humans have possibly known that clashing two stones by "mistake" would change life forever?!
Fire was a "mistake" that brought the world numerous advantages; we protect, eat, fly and drive. Simple mistake has lit the world.
You would not know right from wrong if we never tried?
For a simple example, education. As humans started to govern other humans throughout generations, they created a system that discriminates between our children in schools. It teaches them to get an A, to make no mistakes, because mistakes lead to a failure F. And the failing gets nowhere decent in life. So, deduction is: mistakes leads to failure.
And so, we ourselves became programmed to adapt to the same tyranny of a system. As it proves to be a hopeless of a challenge as it is, telling people to make no mistakes is easier said than done.
We never told them to learn from their wrongs. We never teach them how to learn from them. We push them to be perfect so much, they became frightened of trying anything new moreover trying to take a look out of the closed box or books they have been imprisoned within.
Education should have been immersive, sought, team-based, organized and challenging. Give the students challenges so they can have their own chances, get their own tries, make their own mistakes and decide for themselves how to learn from them. This is how they benefit, and so it should have been.
It is a fact that just by trying new stuff, you have the chance to do something extraordinary. You have got to go and fail and fail and fail until you succeed. Because then, you will have a full life and many many things will happen to you. Lots of discoveries.
It is also true that when you play a safe life it may have worked out well for you. But it's more likely that through 20 years down that road you would be looking at yourself in the mirror regretfully wondering "why didn't I try that?. " [4]
That is why you should shake off your high school hang-offs, the worry of people's opinion. Own your mistakes, learn from them. Never fear failure. You have to go and live your life. Make your own amazing impact. Improve yourself, your life and your businesses. Be willing to take that step even if you are not sure it's safe, take a minute to make a decision, control your life.
https://vimeo.com/241683369