Mistakes

(Narrated by Eleven Labs' Text to Speech AI)


I’ve been thinking a lot about mistakes.

I make a few of them. More than I would like, if I’m being completely honest.

In my first visit to Helsinki, on my first night, approximately 53 minutes into my trip, I put my Airbnb key in the wrong door.

Not a big deal right? Honest mistake. I tried to enter the wrong building (two metres away from the correct building) as I wasn’t really concentrating and I thought it was the right building. Didn’t feel like it would be an issue as I realized I made the mistake. However, the key got stuck in the door. Turns out Finland is known for having some of the most intricate locks in the world. Fast forward 6 hours - 3 (!) locksmiths had to come and try remove the key. One after the other, they failed. Apparently this was the toughest lock in all of Finland, arguably in all of Europe, possibly in all of planet Earth. They ended up having to remove the entire lock from this apartment building’s entrance and replace it. I replaced the lock of that building, and inadvertently invested in the infrastructure of Finland.

6 hours. 400 Euros. An expensive mistake.

A younger version of myself would have ‘beaten myself up’ about it. I would have started to overthink why I did something so silly. It would have affected my mood. I would have struggled to be fully present afterwards.

Over time, I’ve realized that doing ridiculous things is completely normal.

Making mistakes is completely normal.

In sport, messing up a serve, losing a point, conceding a goal - completely normal.

But…

The next serve? The next point? The next goal? The next door in Finland? That’s the one we have to get right. The mentality directly after. That’s the test.

In Roger Federer’s Dartmouth College address, he noted that he has won a staggering 80% of games in his career. That is absolutely incredible. However, the really jarring statistic he shared is that he only won 54% of the contested points within games. That means he lost nearly half of all points he played in his career - he made mistakes of some sort in nearly one in every 2 points he ever played - yet he still won roughly 80% of his matches.

As Federer says, “You want to become a master at overcoming the hard moments” .

Kevin Kelly’s line on this resonates:
“Pros make as many mistakes as amateurs;
They’ve just learned how to gracefully recover from their mistakes”

I absolutely love that.

How liberating is it to know that mistakes are normal?

If we don’t close that deal? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Close the next one.
If we don’t win that point? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Win the next one.
If we don’t know that answer in the exam? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Answer the next one

If we put that key in the wrong hole. Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully.

Get it in the right hole next time.