Why are we afraid of making mistakes? Are we becoming too conformist afraid of taking risks, treading often traveled path? Our parents taught us that it is alright to make mistakes "mistakes are stepping stones to success", but what kind of message are we passing to our kids?
We put tremendous pressure on them to succeed, be smart, which leaves very little incentive for them to deviate from routine, learn new things and innovate. As employees we are rewarded only for good performance and the same is true for the society. So we are becoming increasingly reluctant to admit our mistakes and in the process stop acquiring knowledge or doing something new or different. We try to look only for the data that confirms our beliefs, try blaming others for our mistakes.
As IBM’s Thomas J. Watson, Sr., noted, “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”
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