Auto Repair Shop Owners Turn Mistakes into Lessons

Turn Mistakes into Lessons by Rick White, President 180BIZ

What I want to talk about today is something that I've probably mentioned before.  The word is mistakes. I, literally, want to kill the word mistakes. Here's why. Mistakes come repercussions.  When you use the word mistakes, it's negative. It's not growing. It's not getting better. It's not true. We're not making mistakes. I want you to stop thinking about mistakes. Why? When there's a mistake made, the first thing we typically do is look for someone or something to blame. We direct that negative energy towards someone or something. But it doesn't do anything to make it better. Blame is not the issue here. I don't care whose fault it is. You must take responsibility for adjusting or correcting.

Mistakes are merely lessons. Replace the word mistake with lesson. If you are going through a lesson, who do you blame for that? Blaming and pointing fingers doesn't do anything for anyone. Here's the disconnect I want you to understand and really listen to this. You want to grow, right? That's why you're here. You're here because you're taking this 10 minutes out of your busy day to invest in your thought process, mindset, focus, your actions going forward. I love that. Everyone is here to grow. You want everyone in your shop to grow.  The best lesson we have is when something doesn't go as expected is an error. And that's where the lesson resides.

If you have people in your team constantly growing, they're constantly doing new things. When they do new things, they're learning. They're going to have lessons. This is what you need now.  So, how do you allow them to have those lessons if your expectation is everything must be perfect? Don't go for perfect. Perfection is an illusion created by the devil to rob you of your dreams. You don't want perfection. You want your best. And understand that your best can get better every day. That's amazing.

I have absolutely no issues with mistakes or lessons. What I have an issue with is a trend. When you get the same lesson over and over and over again, it's because they're not internalizing it. Maybe you're not unpacking it and figuring out what the lesson is. There are amazing teachers in life and business. You will get the same lesson over and over again until you get it right.

Stop thinking mistakes because that's a binary right or wrong. It's either good or bad. The reality is you're going to get lessons whether you like it or not. Your team is going to get lessons whether you like it or not. If you can adopt and embrace this word, this one word, you can create teachable moments. That’s when you can step back and help your team member change their focus. You can help them change the frame of the situation from “I screwed up” to, “Wow, what am I going to learn from this?”  The energy will be completely different.

When you're looking at mistakes, you're looking at negativity.  You're looking at all these different things in there wrong. It's not real. Step back and learn the lesson. What's the lesson? Everything that happens, happens for you not to you. You are not a victim. Learn from everything that you go through. Learn from the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff.

I'm turning 60 in July. Can you believe that? I've lived long enough to understand that some of the most painful and what I thought were some of the darkest times in my life had the greatest gifts on the other side. So, step back, look at things as lessons. It’s going to make a huge difference.

If this message resonated with you please share this. There are so many people that need help. Help me to help them and share this video.

Take care. God bless. Stay safe. Go make some money.