Do you think making mistake is good or bad?

Hi Wenjule, I think that is a very good advice. In hazardous working location, sometimes those engineers and technicians get too complacent with following safety regulations. All the daily, twice-daily safety briefings, and monthly safety meetings talk more or less the same thing. And the safety routines and checklists are too much a routine to them, sometimes they followed it, while their minds are elsewhere enjoying. A person who has accident free record for 40 years, doesn't mean he can take things for granted. Costly mistakes can occur due to familiarity. A tiny little screw not tighten can bring down the aircraft.

Hi Wenjule, sometimes when people are working in hazardous conditions, they are very careful at first. It's when they get so used to the working environment, that they forget how dangerous it really is. They become careless, and make silly and costing mistakes. Sometimes the worst mistake are done by people so familiar with the job, probably as a result of boredoom.

Is there a job out there that does not have some amount of boredom after a while? When you find that a job you love so much has become a pain to get to on a daily basis then its time to take a raincheck to see what went wrong. Maybe a vacation would be the best take on this but then again maybe it's time to review your life to see what changes need to be made.Mistakes made may cost you your job but if you can nip the problem in the butt before it gets out of hand then you have began to make a change for the better.

Hi Lelin, I like the way you put in, we should really take a long term view of the mistake we make, and those others made. If the bosses can take such a long term view, they will not terminate people for making mistakes that cause a few hundred thousands dollars. Right now we are in a recession because of mistakes made by those in finacial institutions. After this mess is cleared, the financial structure will be much stronger and better.

Hi Sharksfin, some kind of lessons are hard to learn, that's why we make the same mistakes over and over. For example, learning to read people is an art. It doesn't mean that once we are wrong about a certain person, we will become wiser and "read" others correctly. It takes many years of experience to know who to trust and who not to trust. And some other mistakes are inevitable, like those typing and data entry work. Nobody is perfect, and this kind of mistakes are inevitable. The only way is to check, double-check, triple-check, and get someone else to check. If the Accounts Clerk types a few more 0, and nobody spots the mistake, good luck to the company!

Hi Mikaela, if teachers in school can take a positive view of mistakes, they will teach the students to gain self-confidence. Now so many students are fearful of failures, or being viewed as a failure, and those who cannot excel academically are made to feel stupid. Some parents never learn that all of us are unique, some are good at working with hands, and some are good at working with brains. They also do not view mistakes positively, and always demand perfection.

Hi Nzalheart, I read from a book that most people do learn from failures, but not many people see the importance of learning from success. Actually learning from success is better, since we know why we succeed and we can make it better. Actually many mistakes happen because we are too familiar and too comfortable with a routine. Like those people working in construction or shipbuilding industry, the fact that they do the same thing over and over, and can do it with their eyes close, doesn't mean that mistake cannot happen. Sometimes people are too confident, and when mistake happens, it always has serious consequence.

If there had not been some sort of punishment for the mistake, then we still become careless. So the social rites bound us to realize the mistake in some way...

Hi AcisMahrje, I hope everyone can feel the same way towards mistakes. Sometimes colleagues in the same company, in the same department, backstab each other, and over-emphasize the seriousness of mistake to our bosses. And companies generally do not view kindly of mistakes. That's the whole problem with this society. When someone makes mistake, others will bite his head off. Nobody will celebrate it as a learning opportunity.

well in that case MAKING MISTAKE IS HUGE MISTAKE indeed. but before you get into real world of corporate and business, i think people have experiences as intern or in learning times they have enough chances to make mistake. IF they aren't curious in this period and do not take risk and put their thoughts and activly participate in whatever sort of training or programs they are expected then they missed the huge chance of learning from mistake. Learning from mistake is to reduce our mistakes and increase the efficiency in our work. I am not stating and don't want to say that one has to learn only from mistake, i want to say one CAN ALSO learn from mistakes.SUCCESS or reward is the best way of learning.IT creates urges to perform better and do better. it creates excitement. which isn't always possible as a human being, or for most of the people success doesn't come at all. Those people has to stay focused and be positive. In real world, situations are always changing, and people are always waiting for other people to make mistake so they can move forward. In my view employees must make impression on their boss that they are capable.But most importantly dedicated and honest.Honesty is something that pays later in time but it pays real good. One has to stand out from other employee, one has to show his unique ability,for which employer will be ready to spare your other mistakes and weakness. Its not hundreds of your abilities that matters but its that one quality that makes a huge difference.that one ability will increase once importance to others.and we always have to remember event the best person makes mistake. I personally don't have experience of employment yet, cause i am still a student. but its my view according to the stories of other people that i have heard. And its easier said than done. It might be lot different in real world. anyway happy mylotting!

Hi AcousticSoul, sometimes I feel the society is contradicting in viewing mistakes. On one hand, making mistake is part of learning, and we read of Thomas Edison and persons who make mistake, learn from them, and become famous. On the other hand, students are penalized for making mistakes, and employees are terminated for making mistakes. What sort of message is that! Sounds stupid to encourage us to learn from mistakes, and yet penalize us for making mistakes.

Hi Dragon54u, wow, you are marvelous, you can still remember the name of the teacher. I hardly can remember any teacher from elementary school. She's right, and I like her advice. But I read some better advices, saying that we should learn not only from our own mistakes, but from the mistakes of others. It is very costly to make all kind of mistakes and to learn from them. Far cheaper and wiser to learn from the mistakes that others make.

Hi Mrbluey, I agree with you on mistakes make in personal life. When we misjudge a person, we learn from the mistake. So next time we learn to trust or not trust people, and more careful about our dealings with people. But in working life, we cannot tell the boss that "these are smart mistakes, I will learn more from the mistakes". Some people in civil service will bite your head off, if you use the wrong saluations (eg Miss, Ms, Mrs) in the email.

Hi Nerissagoh, that's very true, boss can make mistake, and nobody dares to tell him, but once we make a small mistake, we get scolding. And the boss will never fail to remind us that we "always" make mistakes, and keeping a record of whatever we did wrong, never about the 99% times when we are correct. Anyway, this kind of boss is really stupid. Nobody can build a multi-billion dollars company on his own.

Hi Mommaj, seldom can we undo the mistakes and stop them from affecting someone. Most of the times we suffer from our mistakes, and vow to learn from mistakes. After the pain is over, we may not remember the lesson learnt. I like the way the Muslims view mistake. They take it as part of life, and recognise that sometimes we can't undo the mistakes. That's why those carpet weavers will not undo the threads when they make mistake in weaving carpets, they just continue on. I hope the owners of the writing sites are Muslims, then we do not need to edit our articles. Might even create a new language known as "Mommaj's langage".

Hi Amrutha, agree that fear is a factor for not trying. Sometimes the society make us so fearful of making mistake, that we dare not try new things. Actually in this sense, Muslims have a more balanced view of mistakes. Those Muslims who weave the carpet do not undo the weaving, just because they make mistake in following the design. They believe that all of us make mistakes, and sometimes we do not need to rectify the mistakes. So the hand-wove carpets become unique, even when all of them follow the same pattern, because of the mistakes each weaver make.

Hi Kudatua, I doubt any company will want to hire Konosuke Matsushita, knowing that they have to spend money to pay his salary, and to pay for his mistakes. Even if you are working in Matsushita Panasonic, I doubt you are allowed to make 1000 mistakes. The company will probably tolerate a few mistakes, but terminates your service if you make too many mistakes. Sometimes the fear of losing the job make people fearful of trying new things. They just want to keep on doing the same thing, same way, and do not want to improve.

Hi Mandeep, I agree that those who never make mistakes in work, actually are too lazy to produce any work. If they have worked hard, they will make some mistakes. The mistakes will make them wiser, and when they mentor the others, they can pass on the lessons learnt. Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves and others for the mistakes, no point keep nagging about the mistake, the most important thing is to rectify and learn.

I think you are right. My boss would have given me all t he credit in the world at it worked and yet had it not...he'd be still giving me kudoos for trying. I am very lucky.,....I do have a wonderful boss.

Hi Sid, you are lucky to have such a boss. You know the kind of boss I hate? I ever had a supervisor who spent an hour telling me off, about making mistakes with saluations, eg Miss, Mrs, Ms, Mdm, and so on. Sometimes, when unsure of the saluations, I tend to use Ms, which is a neutral term, but it's not acceptable for my stupid supervisor. She kept record of all the silly mistakes we made. That was in civil service.

Hi Sid556, I guess the kind of boss you have make a big difference. There are some very sickening bosses around. When you ask him what he thinks of the new idea, and ask for permission to try, he say "use your discretion". When the idea works, he claims credit. If the idea fails, he dismiss his responsibility and says that he never asks you to go ahead and implement. Civil service seems to have more than the average percentage of sickening bosses, these are the ones who are promoted because they do nothing wrong, make no mistake in their career.

Totally agree making mistakes is a real learning process, without mistakes we can't better ourselves

Agree, if only the bosses can see it this way. Most employees want to play safe, so they rather follow the SOP, and do exactly, strictly in accordance to the procedures. In this case, they don't learn, they dont make mistake, and they have a clean record in the company. But in the long run, it doesn't benefit the company and the employees. I think the society places too much emphasize on perfection, and does not tolerate mistakes.

Hi Canellita, most teachers and parents do view "missing an answer to a question" as mistakes. Some students are careless. They skip the difficult questions, and think of coming back to it later on. But they forget, and hand in the papers without checking through. That is careless mistake. Even for us, we make careless mistake in our writings. Sometimes we fail to spot the mistakes, even though we go through a few times. That's why I like the Muslim viewpoints towards mistakes, they accept the mistakes, and get on with life. Even in carpet weaving, they do not undo the threads and rectify the mistake, they just move on. The result is that each handwoven carpet is unique, due to all the small mistakes made.

Someone I know has a similar approach in quilt making. She does not try to make the pieces line up perfectly and will sometimes deliberately leave a section that is slighty off though she said something about a biblical reference on perfection.

Hi Prinzcy, many people are so fearful of making mistake and jeopardizing their career prospect, they end up doing nothing much, just follow procedure, and not signing any documents that might jeopardize them. Sometimes the environment is like that, especially those in civil service. They basically want to do everything politically correct, and not thinking of using mistakes to learn.

Well, there's limitation on making mistakes. Think carefully before that. Besides, no one want to commit mistake, it usually happen by accident. But if you already commit it, just brace it, not running away from it. We are afraid of making mistakes due to certain reason like hurting others or the consequences is too big too handle.

Hi Prinzcy, some working environments are such that, the less work you do, the less mistakes you make, and so you get promotion. In a civil service position I ever hold, simple mistake like using the wrong saluations (eg Miss, Ms, Mrs, Mdm) are seen as the end of the world. I had a bad hour by the stupid supervisor who chose to keep record of all my emails and letters without the right saluations. When I moved on to another company, they do away with all saluations, just address by name. That's more reasonable, and less stressful.

Hi Nimzia, agree that some careless mistakes are fatal. Many drivers drive carelessly, and cause traffic accidents. It is a pity that we cannot undo this kind of mistakes. The best we can do is to learn from the mistakes, and make sure we never make the same mistake twice. Some mistakes are quite ok, quite minor. If we forget to bring umbrella, and drench in rain, the most is we suffer fever for a day or two, not a big deal.

Hi Kudatua, I understand what you are saying, and I do admire persons like Konosuke Matsushita. I'm just reflecting on the society viewpoint towards making mistake. Most people know that making mistakes and learning from mistakes is part of improvement. However, they do not use the same viewpoint when judging others. That's why parents do not encourage their children to make mistakes, and learn from them. That's why companies do not promote those who make mistakes, even if that mistake provide learning opportunities for the rest of the employees. Sometimes it's sad that people view their mistakes positively, but so unkind to the others who make mistakes.

Hi Kudatua, that is a very expensive mistake. It's true that we got to learn to make our own decision, and not blame others. I hope the teachers in school, the bosses in the company, and parents can view mistakes positively, and help others to learn from mistakes, instead of punishing others for making mistakes. I think learning to make decision and be responsible is good. Hope you clear your debt and learn from the mistake.

Dear my friend,thank yur for replying me.No heart feeling for me.it just a discussion right?for me,no body perfect.Some mistake we make can do effect for ourself or to others.Being perfect not easy,Be patient and learn,try to solve it,Just being control.Try and error is the best answer.The big mistake i have everdone is following what other people said without thinking properly.Then i get a problem to solve my debt that i own him.