Making Mistakes

The following is abstracted from a speech by Ben Heinemann, CEO of BP Print Group, Lakewood, NJ.

“Someone once told me a line I’ll never forget. ‘Failure is not failing. It’s just another step in growing.’

The first time I heard Ed Mendlowitz, who currently authors our Biz Wiz column, speak, I was at an event. The person introducing him talked about ten things that Mr. Mendlowitz had accomplished that year. They were pretty major. I was impressed.

When Mr. Mendlowitz got up, he said, ‘Thank you for that introduction. You’re right – I did do those ten things this year. But that’s not what I’m proud of. You know how I accomplished those things? Every month, I set out to achieve ten new projects. Usually, I succeeded at one and failed at the other nine. I would never have achieved those ten goals if I hadn’t tried all the others. You’ll never succeed if you aren’t willing to fail.’

I was even more impressed by his wisdom than I was by his accomplishments.

Yes, not everything will work out. Don’t keep at something if you keep failing. You have to know when to pull the trigger and move on. Whether it’s on a machine, a project, an employee– not every decision will work out. But you’ll never know if you don’t take the chance.”

Thank you, Ben, for reminding me of this and of the need to keep trying to do more and be better.