Worthy Of Mistakes.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about avoiding the mistakes of masters.

My name is Myles, and I have made many mistakes. I've struggled to keep my promises. I've let people down, some of whom I care for deeply. My behavior has been disappointing more than once, and my actions have not always lived up to my best intentions. When I choose to do the wrong thing, it is not because I want to do the wrong thing, but because I mistake it for the right thing. Although I've screwed up, messed up, and tripped up, I pray I might find the courage to acknowledge my shortcomings, and have wisdom enough not to repeat my folly.

I've been in marketing a long time, but not long enough to be the best I can be. There's plenty I could be doing better. I've learned many lessons from making many mistakes in marketing, but not enough to know everything. There's still plenty to be learned. What I do know, and have learned, makes me a better marketer and brings me closer to my ambition.

If you are an aspiring marketing professional, I will advise you to focus your attention on making as many mistakes as you can within a single discipline. The more specialized your focus, the more advanced your mistakes, and the faster you will achieve "expert" status within your specialty. For example, the first corporate website I worked on was built before the invention of the web browser. This gave me a great career opportunity. However, staying focused on website development for the duration, and the ability to make more specialized mistakes than most other people, has given me a considerable advantage. Narrow focus, loyal persistence, and stick-to-it-iveness is the best advice I can offer to the next generation of marketers seeking to build a career faster and achieve success sooner.

Today's fortune says, "Past experience: He who never makes mistakes never did anything that's worthy." This is true. Mistakes are, after all, the necessary building material needed for finding the right way to do a thing, or at least exposing what is most clearly the wrong way. The evidence collected for either will give you a foundation for finding the truth and establishing wisdom. When you have earned the honor of wisdom, and earned the stripes of experience, you will be ready for the advanced course of mistakes designed for masters, experts, and gurus.

When you have made enough mistakes to become an expert, people will celebrate your acumen, acknowledge your successes, and you will be tempted to revel in your accomplishments. If you do, and most do, you could commit the greatest error made by the world's greatest experts. When you have enough courage to look honestly at such errors, you will see your pride lying in the shadows of your worst mistakes. Pride is the final, most difficult opponent all masters must face!