We don’t usually enjoy mistakes while we are making them. That is normal.

At the time, they can feel frustrating, embarrassing or simply expensive. We wish we had made a different decision, noticed something earlier or listened a little more carefully. A boss might have generously said: Learn from it, but don’t repeat it.

But something interesting happens with time.

The mistakes that bothered us then often change in our perception. They sometimes even become the stories we tell later. Why?

Not because the mistake suddenly became a good thing, but because we can finally see what we learnt from it — and how it changed us or our approach.

A lesson. A change of direction. A better decision next time. Sometimes even a good story that today makes us laugh.

After more than forty years in business, I have accumulated many of those stories.

Success teaches us too, of course. But success has a habit of confirming what we already believe.

Mistakes are less polite.

I often say: “Mistakes offer the steepest learning curves.”

Or I quote one of my previous bosses, who said: “Some brick walls are worth running into.”

Perhaps that is why some of our most useful learning begins with something we would never have chosen.

We all make mistakes — but we don’t always see the gift and opportunity they can offer.

We cannot change yesterday’s mistake.

But we can decide what we take forward from it for tomorrow.

And with enough distance, when told as a good story, it may even become educational.

Learn Every Day.