You know you made a mistake.
You feel it in your gut.
You tell a buddy about your mistake.
Her response?
“It wasn’t a mistake.”
“Everything will work out.”
“It was the other person’s fault.”
You feel happier about yourself.
You decide you didn’t make a mistake.
So you make the SAME mistake
days, weeks, months, years later.
You don’t improve.
You don’t change.
You don’t become successful.
A great mentor,
in contrast,
will agree with you
when you say you messed up.
She’ll ask you
what you would done differently.
She wouldn’t allow you
to dodge responsibility for your mistake.
Because change is hard
and no one changes unless there’s a reason,
normally pain-filled reason
why we have to change.
Mistakes SHOULD hurt.
The pain stops us
from making the same mistakes
over and over again.