Taking unnecessary risks
#005: Stupid mistakes, a.k.a. clueless errors
The conclusion I came to in a previous article - Recognising trends late - is that as an entrepreneur I need to take more risks by trying new things before everyone else does. However, there’s a crucial difference in usefulness of trying any new thing and doing some research first to establish the potential and likelihood of success.
In the article that inspired this blog, Eric Sink describes the difference between types of mistakes, he writes, “‘clueless errors’ are quite different from ‘bad bets’.” Clueless errors are mistakes you make without anticipating that they will be mistakes; bad bets are when you take a chance, knowing it may not work and it doesn’t. (Eric explains it much better in his article, so read it or, better yet, buy his book).
The key to making mistakes is making non-fatal mistakes, i.e. mistakes that will not kill your endeavours. Mistakes are an excellent way to learn and grow, but it’s important that the mistakes aren’t so great that you learn nothing save the awfulness of that particular mistake.
Learning from my mistakes
You can mitigate the risks of risk-taking by research, especially by critical reading of a variety of sources.
The mistake I made is with my website Change Things Now! - I failed to do significant market research to determine what people want from feminism and from feminism websites; hoping instead that random visitors would tell me.
I’m learning from my mistake and contributing to the cause of feminism at the same time, by creating a directory of feminism links, which acts as a substantial information (and activism) resource for others and for myself. I also have two like-minded people on board, offering ideas about the site and what its aims should be — visitors are still very welcome to share their ideas and opinions, but that’s not the only way forward for Change Things Now!
