Introduction

‘Only idiots learn from their mistakes, I learn from the mistakes of others’ -Otto Von Bismarck

It baffles me how many people witness the mistakes made by others, only to repeat those exact mistakes themselves, and then wonder why they failed in the same spectacular manner as what they observed.

It's as if some people have this insane pride that says "I'm different. I'm better. I'm smarter than them, so I'll make it past the obstacles where they failed!" And then, they fail and wonder what happened.

As part of a Toastmasters project, we're instructed to create a blog and post eight entries. So, here are eight mistakes I've made in my life. Most of these stem from my days as a software engineer, but a few date back to my teenage years working in a fruit orchard or coaching a kids' soccer team. There's a bonus entry with a lesson that contains no mistake, but is a fun theory I've been testing out.

I intend this to be a limited run - I don't want to go so long exposing my stupidity that you lose all respect for me. Here are eight lessons I've learned that you can, perhaps, benefit from. Go ahead and comment at me, either with your similar mistake or a better lesson I could have learned.