What has been your number one failure or mistake in life, and what did you learn from it?

Question

They say that a fool can learn from a wise man, but only a wise man can learn from a fool.

When reading most ‘how-to’ books, we learn from other people’s successes. We are taught that one of the most effective ways to growth is to find the best of the best, and then learn from them.

However, in our own lives, we learn the most from our own ‘failure’ experiences. Therefore, should we be studying the failures of individuals more so we can learn what not to do? What do you think?

Answer 1

The only true failure is the inability to learn from our mistakes. My greatest inadequacy (addiction) turned out to be my path to enlightenment (some would say God). Out of the greatest pain I ever felt came the greatest happiness I have ever known.

Answer 2

I think it is both wise to learn from failures and achievements in others lives to derive our own meaning from, to help us prosper in our own lives. The biggest mistake I've made so far (I'm only 18) is quiting my job before i found another. i thought it would be easy to find another job but it turns out i was wrong and my life support (my phone) got cut off, and now i cant go shopping and clubbing like i would if i had a job. so the lesson learned for me is that i should of kept my job until i found another job to make a transition to.

Answer 3

Zero really is a big number ... decimal points are mega important ... and always type in the correct DATE!!!

Ok, not my biggest mistake ... but while I worked in Finance I learned these things the hard way ... yes, not typing in a zero really makes a huge difference and can place you in a situation where you mess up causing a "Claim" of tons of dollars ... also, computer systems sometimes put a decimal point in for you, and sometimes they don't ... again changing the ZERO factor and messing with financial numbers!!! Lastly, the date is mega super duper uper important. Yeah, we made it through Y2-K ... but whoops, we didn't make it through my transition each new year ... I always had a difficult time writing the current year down in January.

Answer 4

Today society you have to be perfect in order to get the right kinda success you want or need. I mean we arent in the old days that you can just work and get success from it, now its that you need to get an education and high paying job to have the success and the happiness you need. My biggest mistake is failing out of school. I wasnt really into college, at the time I was wondering too much about if college is right for me? The truth is, it is, but I havent gone back to school in 2 years. We dwell on our mistakes for so long that when we snapped back into reality its already too late to change your life and that is where my life is heading.

Answer 5

My number one mistake in life was wasting my youth. I literally threw it away didn't plan for anything concrete for my future. I'm paying now big time. I thought I was rock solid and that nothing could harm me. I thought I would stay healthy even though I did drugs and drank and partied and ate horribly. Wrong! It ALL catches up....every single bit of it, and you PAY with your poor health and lack of future security and income in old age. The main problem I think was lack of maturity. If that could just be remidied, we'd all do better. I think scientists should work on that one...lol.

Answer 6

I think that if you listen or ask questions to the older people in your life you can learn from them, but still you just have to learn some things on our own... it's called... live and learn...

Answer 7

I was married to an abusive man, I thought that I could fix him. I thought if I loved him enough, that I could teach him "normal" that I could teach him to love me and our kids him without hurting us. It took me a long time to learn that you cannot fix someone. It has to be something that they do themselves. I finally got enough after he had pulled a gun on me several times, I finally (Thank God) got to that breaking point.

That was 5 years ago, now I am stronger than I've ever been before. I love myself, I know that you cannot fix someone, I know that you have to make yourself happy and that nobody can do it for you. I've learned that someone will love me for me, and love doesn't have to hurt.

Answer 8

My number 1 mistake was marrying my ex-husband. We had nothing in common and we both spent 11 years in misery. He is now remarried and I wish him the best. We do have 2 wonderful children though. I'm FREE THANK GOD I"M FREEEEEE!!!!!! LIFE IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!

Answer 9

Divorce. I learned to respect the sacrament of marriage and grow up.

Answer 10

Birth, I don't plan on doing that again!