Mackay: Everyone makes mistakes — you need to learn to move on from them

The daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, lecturer and philosopher, was attending school away from her home when she indicated in a letter to her father that she was concerned about a mistake that continued to haunt her.

Emerson wrote the following to his daughter: "Finish every day and be done with it. ... You have done what you could — some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as fast as you can ... tomorrow is a new day. ... It is too dear with its hopes and invitations with the dread of the past. You should not waste a moment on the rotten yesterdays."

More than 200 years later, this is still good advice in dealing with the mistakes that will inevitably enter our lives.

Everyone makes mistakes.

You learn from them, you change and you move forward. Stumbling is not falling. If you think a mistake is the end of a career, consider the following advice from some icons who are admired for their accomplishments.

President Ronald Reagan put it another way: "What should happen when you make a mistake is this: You take your knocks, you learn your lessons, and then you move on."

Or as the great comedian Charlie Chaplin said: "No matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I may have just landed on my head."

I embrace Dave Ramsey's approach to mistakes.

"As a leader, if I know you care deeply, then when you screw up, I will be quick to give you a second or third chance," he said. "However, I have a very low tolerance for your mistakes when you don't care."

I think that is a fair way to judge mistakes.

I remember seeing an interview with a professional hockey goalie years ago. He basically said: All of us make mistakes. But how would you like a job where every time you make a mistake, a red light goes on?

In the words of our favorite baseball philosopher Yogi Berra, "Don't make the wrong mistakes."

When I coach our sales staff at MackayMitchell Envelope Co., I always tell them, "It doesn't matter how many pails of milk you spill just so long as you don't lose the cow."

In other words, you might lose some sales, but don't lose the account.

Mistakes are, and always will be, part of the human condition. Try as you may, you will eventually mess up something. How you respond to your error determines just how smart you really are.

Think about what you may have done well and build on that element. You will have plenty of chances to learn from your inevitable mistakes.

Just make sure that you correct the right mistakes. Many years ago, three men were sentenced to death by guillotine for their serious unlawful behavior. The first victim was placed on the guillotine, but it didn't work.

The executioner shouted, "Unbelievable! The laws of our land dictate we must set you free."

The second man was positioned beneath the murderous weapon and, again, the guillotine got stuck. He too was set free.

As the third man lay on the platform glaring up at the large blade, he suddenly blurted out, "Wait a minute. I see your problem. If you would just oil that hinge ..."

Mackay's Moral: Make no mistake, sometimes our best ideas follow our biggest boo-boos.

Harvey Mackay is a Minneapolis businessman. Contact him at 612-378-6202 or email harvey@mackay.com.