The Miracle of Mistakes

Do you remember the first time you rode a bicycle? Can you relieve the exhilaration of riding free, the sense of triumph as you broke free to the crutches of support? Now step back. How many times did you fall off the bike before that first ride? Today, fear of making mistakes is deeply ingrained in our psyche. At home, mistakes lead to admonishments. At work, mistakes have serious repercussions. Good workers get it right the first time, we are told, and so success is driven by our image as experts rather than as learners. But is this really the best philosophy? Vineet Nayar asks us to imagine the opposite: What if employees are told to make mistakes? Making mistakes, Navar says, is actually an art. It's a process of innovation, growth and learning. Without mistakes, there is no such thing as success.

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