10 Mistakes Successful People Don’t Make Twice

An old proverb says, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” The same applies to making mistakes – it’s natural that we make mistakes, but if we don’t learn from then and use what we’ve learned to improve, than we can’t really hope for success or progress.

People usually don’t like admitting that they’ve made a mistake because it makes them feel less worthy. But research, as well as personal experience, has on many occasions shown that acknowledging even the worst of errors and understanding why they were made is the only true way to stop ‘repeating the history’ and move on. Once you really analyze the mistake you made and find the solution, you’re less likely to make the same mistake again, and more likely to grow and become wiser and more experienced. Successful people know that, and they became successful thanks to learning from their mistakes and making sure that they don’t repeat them again. Of course, nobody is perfect, and some mistakes are made more than a couple of times. However, these are the 10 mistakes successful people never make twice.

1. Not doing their homework

Sometimes it’s tempting to try to take shortcuts. It happens sometimes that people haven’t had the time to prepare for a meeting. Sometimes you can really get lucky and nothing wrong will happen, but if you get used to doing things half-right, you’re going to fail eventually and you will keep yourself from achieving your full potential.

When it comes to successful and hardworking people, they understand that in order to do everything right and make a progress, they have to prepare themselves and do ‘their homework’. They may have gone to a business meeting unprepared once, but the feeling of shame, uncertainty and insecurity isn’t appealing at all, and they decide that they are going to be good at their job before it’s too late. They don’t expect everything to be easy – they work hard for what they have, and there are no shortcuts that can give you the experience and the knowledge. Successful people may have made the mistake of thinking so once, but never again. They don’t take chances and they understand that there isn’t a replacement for commitment and hard work.

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