Ways to Use Mistakes as Stepping Stones to Success

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Article by: College of Career Guidance and Development

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Sometime back, my daughter's school invited us for a career day. Being a boarding school, most of us parents were so eager to go so that we could have a chance to meet and spend time with our kids. That is not the story I would like to share today. The story is, the invited guest, a motivational speaker and a one-time TV presenter was on the floor. He was dressed to the nines, well-spoken and had this amazing 3D presentation that made some of us in the corporate world really scratch our heads!

Every word, every breath, every page was extremely rosy! He talked of big figures, the salary he has earned, the money he has made, the estate he lives in, the shopping…oh how much the audience drooled! Don’t get me wrong! I have no problem with all these!

My problem was, and still is; did he wake up one morning and find all these waiting on his door? Didn’t he struggle to get where he is? What mistakes did he make along the way? What story should he have been telling the young people?

Months later as I was contemplating on this, I came across an article written by Nancy Birnbaum-Gerber and it hit the cursor home! She started her story with this statement; The more successful people are, it seems, the more mistakes they’ve made. Errors often turn out to be more valuable down the road than the expected outcome.”

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