Action, Feedback, Correction...

It's said that a rocketship to the moon is off course for most of the trip, yet it still reaches its destination. Babe Ruth used to say that he loved being a baseball player because you could strikeout 7 out of 10 times and still make the Hall of Fame.

Gee, it doesn't sound like the rocket ship OR Babe Ruth got it right every time. So why do the rest of us think we have to? Making mistakes is something most of us dread. Yet without making mistakes, we will never succeed.

If we make a mistake and fail, we may be laughed at. This is another big reason people hold themselves back. Studies have shown that 80% of people let their fear of failure outweigh their desire to succeed. That's a big number. How did we get to be so fearful?

Think about it. If you got 7 out of 10 answers wrong at school, that would be a 30%. What grade would you get for that? An "F"! Pretty dismal. We were trained in school to be afraid of making mistakes! We were taught that there were certain right answers, and if we didn't know them on our own, we were stupid. If we tried to get the answers from someone else, we were cheaters, which was even worse than being stupid! In fact, getting caught cheating will get you thrown out of most schools.

Know what's really funny? Does anyone even remember all that stuff from school? I don't. From the earliest days, our blueprint for success was based in large part on our ability to learn and retain useless information, without help from anyone! Wow.

Strangely enough, this is the exact opposite of the real world. In the real world, the "right" answer depends upon who is asking the question, and mistakes are the way we learn. In the real world, business and investing are team sports and the Lone Ranger is a loser, not a hero. The only way to succeed is to work as a team.

It's tough getting over a mindset that's been ingrained in our heads since childhood, but this new economy sure gives us a great reason to try. And it's a great time to start teaching your child differently, despite what he learns in school. Maybe the best way to "kill two birds with one stone" is to go out there ourselves and start making mistakes, showing we're not afraid to try and fail. Maybe now is an ideal time to get together with others and start brainstorming about how to accomplish your dreams, instead of going it alone. After all, the best way to teaach, is by example. Action, feedback, correction.