Tuesday, December 18, 2018

2018-51 - Making Mistakes...

A famous research scientist once spoke about why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person?


He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience when he was a kid. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip and it fell, spilling all over the floor!


When his mother entered, instead of yelling at him, she said, “Wow, what a wonderful mess you have made! Well, the damage is done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk before we clean it up?"


Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, whenever you make a mess, you have to clean it and restore everything to its proper order. We could use a sponge, or a mop. Which do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.


His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!


The scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment doesn't work, we usually learn something valuable from it.


~ Author Unknown





“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.”


~ James Joyce


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