Learning from other people's mistakes
Published: Mon, 12/16/13
Learning from your mistakes is very important. If you can't
learn from your own mistakes you won't get very far in life.
Learning from other people's mistakes is more efficient if you
can get those people to discuss their mistakes honestly. The
problem with being both a teacher and someone who honestly admits
their mistakes is that to be both seems counter intuitive. How can
you trust someone to guide you if they make mistakes themselves?
As I just suggested you are enabling other people to learn from
your own experience. The issue then is whether other people
appreciate your honesty or just think you are an idiot for making
the mistakes you have made in your life. The simple fact is that
you can't honestly share your experience without revealing your
foolishness.
I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and one of the bigger
one's was going bankrupt. No, I will qualify that, actually
going through the process of bankruptcy was actually one of the
best things I ever did, the mistake, or series of mistakes, were
putting myself in the position of needing to go bankrupt. Fifteen
years ago I was in a position of being remarkably credit worthy
with six or seven active credit cards available when my personal
circumstances changed suddenly. My out goings increased and my
income became erratic so I financed my business using credit cards.
It is alarmingly easy to find oneself in an escalating spiral of
debt. So Six years ago last July I had myself declared bankrupt
and go the lot written off. I don't think I need to say any
more about it than that but if you want to buy me a drink and
listen to the rest of the details sometime I won't mind
sharing. (The story isn't particularly exciting.)
The point is that I am in the process of opening a Stav Centre here
in Crewkerne and at 1245hrs today there is a photo-shoot for an
article which will probably appear in the Western Gazette this
week. It seems like the project is taking on a life of its own and
I am responsible for starting the ball rolling. The question is,
am I a fit person to run a Stav centre with the financial
commitments that are involved? Does the fact that I have been
bankrupt mean that I shouldn't be trusted with such a project?
Or does my record of financial disaster mean that it is less likely
that I will make the common mistakes that often wreck a project
like this? If I had been where I am now ten years ago I would
probably have been thinking. 'This is okay, I have twenty
thousand pounds credit on credit cards and I have a nice big
overdraft facility, so lets spend lots of money to get the project
off the ground. Plenty of time to pay it all back later.'
Well, that is exactly the kind of attitude that leads to filing for
bankruptcy, I know, I have been there.
If the Stav Centre project proves not to be viable then I will
simply close it down and hand the keys back to the owner. I
won't be borrowing any money for the project or owing any.
You may think that I should simply be raving about how wonderful
this venture is going to be. It could be wonderful and a very
special place could come into being. But only if there are enough
people willing to support the venture. If not enough people do
support the Stav Center then to some extent it is my fault for not
getting the right message over to enough people. However I have
learned that however magical your dream may be it can't become
a reality unless the money is there. Debt can seem like a way of
bypassing that reality but I know that in practice it isn't
that easy.
Over the next few days I will be outlining my plans for getting the
project off the ground. But first I wanted to start by making it
clear that I do understand the financial realities of what I am
undertaking. Not in theory, but from hard experience.
regards
Graham
PS Whatever happens we won't be training at the Crewkerne Stav
Centre before February but you can come to Salisbury for a day
training on the 18th of January. Book up at
http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/forthcoming.html