Today we’re taking a look at John Maxwell’s bestselling book called Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Lose. The central theme of this book is simple, if you have the right tools, you can turn any professional or personal setback into a victory or lesson. It can be difficult to turn a defeat into a lesson, however this book provides a roadmap in doing so. After all, experience isn’t the greatest teacher, evaluated experience is.
Let’s take a look at some of the lessons found in the book:
1. Mistakes Are Useful
We tend to learn from a young age that mistakes are inherently “bad” and are undesirable results. However, Maxwell believes that mistakes are integral in teaching valuable lessons. For example, think about learning how to ride a bike, you probably fell multiple times but eventually learned to balance and stop falling (or so we hope). Mistakes will be inevitable in life and the key is to learn from them and move on quickly. Maxwell states you can make mistakes resulting from ignorance, which stems from lacking necessary information or you can make mistakes due to stupidity, which occurs when you had the necessary information but misused it. In both scenarios, the mistakes allow you to push your limits and serve as a springboard for future endeavours.
2. Experiences Need to Be Evaluated
When you make a mistake, there is no guarantee that you will learn from it. If you don’t take the time to analyze your actions, chances are you will repeatedly make the same mistakes and be none the wiser. Maxwell highlights that “evaluated experience” is a process where you actively participate in studying your behaviours and your actions. By simply asking questions about where you went wrong and identifying possible areas to improve on, you will be well on your way to future success. You can also consider how you may approach the scenario differently in the future so that you do not perform the same mistakes endlessly.
Overall, this book showcases that there is nothing wrong with failure if you have the right mindset to learn from them. There are plenty of stories of individuals who have the humility to learn from their actions and their mistakes versus those who are too stubborn to admit they have faults. By developing humility, you can easily obtain a growth mindset and gain perspective to help you improve in future situations. We, at PT Business Corner, had a great time reading this book and hope you can apply the valuable lessons found in this book to obtain success!
