For many people, mistakes have a negative connotation. They are perceived as obstacles and not OppORTuNiTy on our way to success. Mistakes are often seen as costly, inconvenient and unacceptable – something that has no place in making.

However one valuable lesson expect to learn from every mistake – especially new ones. This is a truth I discovered recently in a conversation with a rabbi after arriving late to pick up my children from Hebrew School one day. Despite my lateness, the Rabbi called me “Tzadik”. Tzadik, which is from the same root as the words “Tzedek” and “tzedakah”, literally means “he who is just and righteous” when translated from Hebrew. I was shocked when the Rabbi told me this, because being straight and simple seemed inconsistent with my actions. I later learned that the word has another meaning in Yiddish: Tzadik is one who makes new mistakes.

This discovery underscored the inherent, transformative potential of embracing mistakes as catalysts for growth. But to harness the potential for growth and success in mistakes, especially new ones, we need to do some essential things.

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1. Avoid accumulating errors

Work culture often stigmatizes mistakes as failures, fostering a culture of concealment and fear. People tend to hide their mistakes from their managers and teams because they are afraid they will track them down during the next performance review. This phenomenon, which I call “error accumulation,” impedes individual and organizational progress by suppressing transparency and stifling innovation.

Instead, we need to understand the role that mistakes play. This role goes beyond being an indicator or measure of failure, misunderstanding, neglect or incompetence or serving as an opportunity to negatively criticize or correct others. The role of mistakes is to teach us; to provide opportunities to solve problems and learn new skills and knowledge that we may not already have; and to redirect and steer us in a different, informed, potentially more successful direction that we would not have discovered without that failure.

2. The two-by-two model

At my company, Cloud for Good, we embrace a culture of learning. We understand that mistakes are not instances of failure, but rather, they are growth opportunities. Every quarter, our leadership team meets to review two processes that went well and two that didn't. This is a time for us where, instead of taking the direct and perhaps easier route of pointing fingers or placing blame for mistakes made, we deliberately focus on the learning aspect of those mistakes so that to be able to develop and implement operational decisions on how to avoid the same mistakes or repeat the success in our future projects.

Mistakes must be acknowledged and addressed to inform us how to make appropriate adjustments and progress toward improvement. While it is true that instances of success and achievement are learning opportunities, so are mistakes – no matter how challenging they may be.

3. Make new mistakes

Cultivating a growth mindset it is essential for approaching and exploiting the potential for error growth. This perspective reframes obstacles as opportunities for learning and development. In order to make new mistakes and not to repeat old mistakes, a person must pull himself together, admit the mistake, reflect, learn and try again. This is a very powerful concept.

As human beings, it is not always easy to accept and admit that we have made a mistake, especially a serious one. However, by creating a space and culture where we can instead accept our humanity and reframe our mistakes as part of our growth and journey to success, we are no longer limited and held back by our mistakes or fear. of failure. It also helps foster a space where, by focusing more on learning from mistakes and less on criticizing them, people can grow in resilience and build new skills to set them on a path better towards success and innovation.

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4. Embrace failure as part of success

Success is much more powerful and meaningful when we welcome the space for failure. By inviting failure into conversations, we are challenging the norm of celebrating only the positive side of success. This “fear of failure” can often lead to poor collaboration and high turnover rates—something that can stifle the success of any organization.

This is why I believe that failure is not the antithesis of success in the entrepreneurial journey, but rather the opposite an essential component. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm.” I strongly believe that one of the reasons my company was able to grow from a one bedroom apartment to 250+ employees is because of our ability to reframe and welcome mistakes and failures in our work without automatically dismissing or condemning them, starting by telling people not to be error collectors, learn valuable lessons and insights from our mistakes, and keep moving forward with enthusiasm. And when new mistakes are made, we repeat that process to get closer to achieving our goals.

Success is not only driven by our expertise and knowledge, but also by what we've learned along the way – including what we've learned from our failures. I wouldn't have learned a fresh and compelling perspective on the innovative potential of making new mistakes if I hadn't been late picking up my kids from Hebrew School. It's a mistake that I learned that I don't want to make again, but it also turned into a meaningful opportunity for me to learn and understand why welcoming mistakes and failures in our work and life and learning from them is essential to enter the paths powerful forces of growth, innovation and success.