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Experienced Only Apply
Mistakes are Made
by Jerry Hocutt

“It’s not that we want to see a mea culpa from the candidates,” Pulitzer Prize author and Presidential historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin said on Meet the Press, “but that we want them to admit that they made mistakes and tell us what they learned from them.  When they know what they learned, they won’t repeat their mistakes again.”

Ahhh.  So that’s why employers want experienced salespeople.  Those who have learned from their shortcomings become instant assets for their company.

We all make mistakes.  But we have to admit them to learn from them.  Maybe every job interview should include the question: “What three mistakes have you made professionally, and what did you learn from them?”

If you’re stuck in a job that you hate, admit it.  Isn’t that a mistake?  What have you learned by staying where you are?  What have you learned about the job?  Yourself?  What are you going to do about it?  Your answers will determine your future and your happiness.

What did you learn about that big sale you thought was in the bag?  You know.  The one the competitor walked away with and charged an even higher price than you proposed.

What did you learn after you left that last negotiation where you gave away the store to get the business?  Your employer is anxious to know. 

Remember the presentation you gave three months ago?  The one where, as you were driving away, you kept mentally slapping yourself and saying, “Stupid!  Stupid!  Stupid!  What was I thinking?  Why wasn’t I prepared for their questions?”  You – and your boss – just paid a pretty price for that screw-up.  What did you learn, and what are you going to do next time?

I can think of three off the top of my head
What mistakes have I made and what lessons have I learned by doing public seminars?  That’s easy.  Let me count the errors of my ways.

One of my earliest mistakes nearly cost us our company.  Another involved doing our first public seminar in the Los Angeles area.  That little screw-up cost us about $100,000.  But the crown jewel was a mistake that cost us more than $1 million.  Lessons learned and mistakes reversed to make our business better.  Yet I see other speakers making the same mistakes.  They could literally save a fortune, heartaches, and perhaps their business if they had the knowledge my mistakes inflicted upon me. 

I could go on, but you get the picture.  Mistakes are made.  That’s life.  Make them.  Admit them.  Learn from them.  Get over it.

Experience is valuable, but it’s not cheap.

Ouch!
“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” – Unknown

MBA of Hard Knocks
“Ask the experienced rather than the learned.” – Arabian Proverb

Preaching to the Choir
“The only one who controls me is me, and that’s just barely possible.” – John Lennon

#@*&!
“They call it golf because all of the other four-letter words were taken.” – Raymond Floyd