Move on

I was talking to a an executive who had given an important presentation and felt he had totally blown it. As we continued talking he explained all the significant changes and impact he had made up to that point.

His perspective came from a place that suggested that all the good work he had done was clouded by this one mistake.

I suggested to him that our work, our life in general, is made up of successes and failures. In fact, in baseball, if you are batting .300, hitting the ball 3 out of 10 times, you are good. Over . 500 is amazing.

While we clearly want to do better than that, it is important to remember that when we lead, we take risks. When we take risks, we will fail. When we fail, it's how we learn and pick ourselves up that matters!

Brush yourself off, learn from your mistake and move on to the next opportunity.

Richard Branson puts it this way in a recent tweet:

"Although I'm known as Dr Yes there are plenty of opportunities Virgin has missed.

Five years ago I sent Oleg Tinkov, a good friend of mine, to Virgin Money suggesting we start a credit card company with him in Russia. They passed.

Yesterday I was sitting in his delightful offices in Moscow, on the largest sofa ever, contemplating what might have been. That day his company had been valued at a billion and he was taking Russia by storm.

Then again, as I have said before: opportunities are like buses - there's always another one coming."