Bridge of Mistakes

There are times when we make decisions that we aren’t proud of. No one likes to screw up and I guess, every of us wishes to make the right decision, one hundred percent of the time. Especially, living in a culture that glorify perfectionism, only two possible choices await in life: crossing the bridge by making one precise shot or not crossing at all and being a total failure. However, after a sharing session with one dedicated Toastmasters member, Robin, I realized that the mixture of both choices, somehow, makes an absolute great pair, just like seafood and Champagne or fried chicken and beer. And to our surprise, those bad mistakes we’ve made a few apparently turn to be the bridge.

Just for a few slices of background information, Robin is a businessman who has particular interest in networking and investment. One of the reasons why I possess a huge curiosity to interview him was because, like everybody else, he committed several mistakes too, even repeatedly but as I watched him grow, I am constantly fascinated by how prudent he has always been in terms of handling bad outcomes.

“I did regret a lot when I made my first few mistakes, but now as I look back, it wasn’t probably the right thing to do. So, what would I do, once an opportunity passed and I failed it, I’d try to look at another new thing.”

Those solid statements of his hit me, as I used to keep looking at the wreckage I made whenever I jumped into bad decisions and hate myself for what I’ve caused. But then, if only we tried one more time to bundle up those mistakes, stash them into our locked memory and look at things in a new perspective, there could be new opportunities behind those mistakes.

To add on, according to him, for the opportunities to come, understanding the cause is what we need the most instead of just mourning for the wrong track we took. When we are able to accept and understand our mistakes, that’s when we can turn them into opportunities.

“Just like how we pronounce this word ‘catastrophe’, there’s the word ‘trophy’ in ‘catastrophe’. So long story short, if I had not failed in my previous business, I wouldn’t have started this one. That is also why our little choices, even if they’re mistakes, they’re connected to what we’re today.”

To me, it sounds much like a blessing in disguise and also a chain reaction. Giving me new beautiful perspective, instead of locking up his mistakes in his deepest memory, he made use of them by building a bridge to cross for another new thing that might bring him success.

Afterall, to continue walking on the bridge could be scary, but at the same time it’s the place where we can reevaluate, restart, and cross to the other side. Life will throw so many things at us, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t able to handle the storms. It’s okay to make mistakes and it’s up to us whether or not we build the bridge.

-ASA-