It’s Not Whether You’ll Screw Up, It’s How You Respond

We spend so much of our time trying to eliminate mistakes. And with good reason — mistakes aren’t usually pleasant. Sometimes it’s just the fact that you messed up that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. Or the criticism that accompanies failure. Or it could be the fact taht you let someone down or angered others.

If you’re looking for a surefire way to eliminate mistakes, you’re going to be disappointed to discovers that it’s impossible to do so. You can minimize the chance of mistakes, but if you’re going to accomplish something worth talking about, eliminating mistakes is impossible.

So, the question is not whether you’ll screw up. The question is, How will you respond?

There’s a certain restaurant nearby — Joe’s Pizza Pasta — that my wife and I love. Perhaps you’ve heard me talk about it before. We usually go on Wednesday nights — Pay What It’s Worth Night. On these nights, the menu has no pricces. You get what you want and pay and tip what you think it’s worth. It’s fun and something worth talking about (obviously, because I’m talking about it right now!)

On one particular night, my wife and I had what could have been a negative experience. But it ended up being very positive. Our waitress had brought our drinks and taken our orders, so we were sitting around and talking while we waited for our food.

After a while, my wife commented that we had been waiting for an unusually long time. You know how it is when you’ve been waiting; you start noticing that the patrons who’ve come in after you are getting their food before you. Soon, I was on board with my wife, we had been waiting a while. Just when we were getting ready to say something, our waitress approached.

She started with an apology. Uh oh. Somehow, our order had gotten lost. The cooks hadn’t even begun cooking our food. She acknowledged that we had waited a while and understood if we wanted to leave. But she gave us another option: we could wait and get our meal for free. Since it was Pay What It’s Worth Night, they couldn’t really give us much of a discount. (What were they going to say — pay half of what you think it’s worth? Or, we’ll give you a free dessert that you technically didn’t have to pay for anyway, given the nature of the night’s special).

So we stayed and enjoyed our free meal. We still tipped our waitress. After all, these things happen. But she and Joe’s Pizza Pasta did the right thing and we left in a good mood.

Rather than leave angry, we were fully and happy. And we’ve been back since then. Sometimes your mistakes are not just screw-ups. They’re opportunities for you to correct something and make yourself a hero. Okay, maybe that’s a bit melodramatic, but I hope you get the point.

As I said, mistakes are inevitable. But now I know that if I go to Joe’s Pizza Pasta and they make a mistake again, they will do the right thing and correct the wrong. Because fo that, they will continue to get my business.

In some ways, because of how they correct it, that mistake may be more valuable than all the orders they ever got right.

Tagged as: mistakes