Mistakes. When we make a mistake we can feel angry, maybe ashamed. We feel guilty and sometimes we even try to bury those mistakes. We often lay awake at night reliving mistakes from years ago.
In the 12th century, Donna Berta di Bernardo donated some money to buy the first few stones for a new tower. The tower took two centuries to build. The first 'layer' started to lean (due to the sand-clay soil). Construction stopped for a century. Officials hoped that the settling would help stop the lean. It didn't.
Once construction resumed, other architects tried to created a counter-weight by offsetting higher layers. Obviously, this didn't work either. And in fact? These 'fixes' caused the tower to lean more!
Imagine being these architects. This tower took two centuries to build and they knew it was a failure. Every day going to work, they saw their dream, their life's work continue to lean over.
Today, over a million people a year visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa. These architects and builders never knew the success of their creation.
Mistakes aren't what define us. It's how we recover from them. It's how we move forward. Do we move forward with grace, dignity and purpose? Or do we beat ourselves up and grow too cautious out of fear of making another mistake?
Babe Ruth is known for his home-run prowess. 714 career home runs. What many people over look is his 1,300 career strike outs. Now, baseball has changed a lot in the last 80 years. During Babe Ruth's era, it was more important to put the ball in play. His strikeout numbers were appalling for the time. But he's remembered for the home-runs he hit.
Babe Ruth ignored the 'mistakes,' the strikeouts. He focused on his recovery. Every at-bat for him wasn't about trying to not strikeout, it was about punching the ball out of the park. Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played.
If we make a mistake in our work, it's natural to play cautiously moving forward. Instead of trying something new, we're reminded of our earlier mistakes and instead play it safe.
New shores aren't discovered by staying close to home. And neither can we accomplish something new by doing the same old thing that everyone else is doing. You're going to make mistakes, but what is going to define your career and define you as a person is how you recover from them.
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