RETAILOBSERVER.COM AUGUST 2021
6
Moe Lastfogel
moe@retailobserver.com
Moe's Musings Views
Happily Wrong (sometimes),
I
n business, you are taught that every decision and move your company
makes will have financial implications. Those decisions, if not carefully made,
could set a dire course for the fate of your company. Therefore, it is perceived
that there is a high cost for being wrong, so often times business owners live in
that fear every day.
However, being wrong is actually an essential part of learning. We get scared
because we fear the cost of experimenting. Part of this is that we don't often
realize how cheap it is to test most of our ideas. But the bigger problem with
experimenting is psychological – the realization that we might be wrong.
Kathryn Shulz, author of Being Wrong, explains why this is such a problem
for many people: "In our collective imagination, error is associated not just with
shame and stupidity, but also with ignorance, indolence, psychopathology,
and moral degeneracy. In this rather despairing view – and it is a common one
– our errors are evidence of our gravest social, intellectual, and moral failings.
Of all the things we are wrong about, this idea of error might well top the list.
It is our meta-mistake: we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far
from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to
human cognition… Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of
ourselves and amend our ideas about the world."
At what stage in our life did we start believing that we need to be perfect at
everything we do? That we need to achieve our goals without failure, without
challenges and without everything going according to plan?
In the real world, we need to be wrong, not deterred, just wrong sometimes.
We need to take risks, put ourselves out there, live on the edge, and try
things that we will not master upon our first attempt. We need to push our
comfort zones to get ahead.
In other words, being wrong is the most beneficial and natural way to learn,
not only in our personal lives but in the business world as well.
WHAT DOES
IT COST
TO BE WRONG?
Often, the cost of being wrong is
less than the cost of doing nothing
We proudly support the following
trade associations and buying groups
throughout North America whose news
and information greatly contribute to the
quality of The Retail Observer and the
education of our readers.
www.asid.org
www.cedia.org
www.dpha.net
www.feigroup.net
www.htsa.com
www.cta.tech
www.cantrex.com
www.unitedservicers.com
www.psoca.org
www.NKBA.org
www.necoalliance.com
www.psaworld.org
www.prosourceinfo.com
THE RETAIL
www.nahb.org
www.nrha.org
Follow us on:
Join us at:
Become a Fan:
www.NARI.org
www.nationwidegroup.org
www.aham.org
www.rtohq.org
www.joinbrandsource.com
