Mistakes Matter!

It has taken me a full week to cycle through the full range of the Kubler- Ross five stages of grief model (Anger -> Denial->Bargaining->Depression-> Acceptance) since the end of the super bowl last Sunday night. Indeed, the loss by my beloved Steelers sent me into a funk that is just now clearing. In an attempt to garner learnings from even the most miserable of situations, I have tried to take a few moments and calmly (no small feat) reflect on my insights coming out of last week’s loss. In a nutshell, and exemplified by the three Steeler turnovers turning into three touchdowns for the Green Bay Packers, (no, not a fumble in the fourth quarter!!!) Mistakes Matter!

I have often commented that “actions have consequences”, and indeed this game is a great model for that truth. In sports as in business and in life, our actions are not without impact. Our actions actually matter (see the essay on this blog titles “Act with Intent, Redux”) and have consequences in our life both good and bad. This past super bowl is a good example of this where in a hard fought, evenly matched game, the victors turned out to be the team that executed without dramatic errors/mistakes, while the losing team made errors/mistakes throughout the game that cost them dearly. The same is true in business and in life. Often we face situations where we are “evenly matched” by a competitor or a challenge that are facing. We MUST remember (could be a good moment for a bit of “PBR”, see the blog essay by the same name) how we respond to those challenges and what actions we take really matter. As I have faced challenging moments in my past, I have often fallen victim to three typical pitfalls:

1) “Act too Quickly”; rather than taking a moment to “Pause/Breath& Reconnect”, I have often taken immediate action and often times it turned out to me in the wrong direction or against the wrong problem. Taking a few moments to clarify the “root problem”, then developing a corresponding, well crafted action plan, is always the better approach.

2) “Plan well and Execute Poorly”; this seems to be at the core of the problem with my Steelers last week. They knew what needed to be done, they know that they could not afford turnovers, but yet their execution fell short. How many times have you developed a good plan and the execution fell short. We need to be as attentive to “executing every play” as we are to crafting a great plan. Remember the old phrase, strategy is meaningless without execution. True on the football field and true in life!

3) “Don’t learn from your mistakes”; remember we all will make mistakes in life. I often quote that famous bible verse, Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god.” The trick isn’t to try to be perfect, no-one ever will be! The trick is to learn from the mistakes in our life and improve! Remember that we have an infinite ability to make tomorrow better that yesterday just as we have an infinite inability to change yesterday!


Just the process of writing this blog has been cathartic, helping me move forward form this emotional week. As I move into the coming year, “Terrible Towel” in hand, I will continue to be a loyal fan of the black and gold, and remember the lessons from this past Super bowl that can be simply captured in the phrase, “Mistakes Matter!”