Daily Inspiration: “Success is best achieved through the accumulation of small errors and multiple mistakes, finally assembled into a cohesive result!”

“Success is best achieved through the accumulation of small errors and multiple mistakes, finally assembled into a cohesive result!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I did a little show yesterday with a ‘behind the scenes’ tour for the folks over in the Facebook ECammLive community; that’s the software I use for my green screen broadcast studio. If you want to totally bore yourself, the full hour can be found right here.

While putting the ‘show’ together, I had the chance to reminiscence quite a bit about my now 9-month long voyage into the world of virtual events and online ‘broadcasting.’ It’s fair to say that I’ve come a long, long way!

And I know that while throughout the voyage I’ve seen some wonderfully successful results, I’ve also made a tremendous number of small, hidden from view mistakes along the way. Forgetting to hit ‘record’ for a particularly important session. Knocking my sound mixing board just before an event, totally destroying the sound quality. Leaving a stool in clear view of the cameras, totally ruining a shot. Forgetting to turn on one particular studio light leaving me with a bit of an eerie glow. Small things, all of them, but enough to teach me to go through a checklist and always strive to do better.

We only get ahead by failing fast!

And failing often! Some of the greatest innovations in history are the result of failure – WD40 went through 40 formulations before they got it right – hence the name! Bubble wrap; James Dyson tested over 5,000 prototypes before getting his vacuum right; the breakfast cereal Wheaties went through 36 iterations before a successful formulation was found; the Apple Newton eventually led to a team that developed the iPod and then the iPhone.

If you aren’t making enough mistakes, you aren’t working hard enough to get ahead in the future!