Missteps are OK as long as you’re heading in the right direction.

I’ve made my share of mistakes during my career and certainly would like some do-overs.  Some projects, plans, campaigns didn’t turn out as I’d planned.  But that’s OK.  Not everything will succeed as you hoped it would.  As someone once said:  missteps are OK as long as you’re heading in the right direction.

I’ve always told my teams that I’m completely comfortable with mistakes or errors as long as the errors happen during the course of doing the right things.  I don’t want my teams afraid of planning, trying and taking some risk as long as their intentions were good.  To use a sports analogy, I’d rather be 12-5 at the end of the year than 2-0.

Encourage your kids, your teams, your company to take chances, try new things.  Don’t be afraid of failing.  If you fail, make sure you fail for the right reasons, and learn from those failings.