Magic School Bus Wisdom

Did you know Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus and the founder of IKEA have a shared philosophy?

But first, a personal story:

Last weekend I made a mistake that I felt embarrassed about for days.

I reached out to a friend, told her about it, and she texted me back one word:

"Whoops."

Oddly enough, it was the exact word I needed to hear. Because while my emotions told me that everything was falling apart, it wasn’t actually the end of the world.

Yes I had disappointed myself and others, but this was truly a "whoops" mistake, something much closer to slipping on a banana peel than to lighting the house on fire.

But my friend added something else, something that would have helped even if the mistake had been much bigger. She reminded me that I’m not alone in messing things up.

This would mean a lot coming from anyone, but this friend has been through a lot, and I admire the way she navigates both her business and personal relationships. So it meant even more that she related to the feeling I was going through.

The whole exchange reminded me of a quote from Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA:

“Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active, of those who can correct their mistakes and put them right.”

Even though mistakes feel bad and have consequences, they’re also a byproduct of living our life and taking the risks required to pursue our dreams.

After all, how can we expect to get something right when we’ve never done it before? And even if we have done it before, we’re not perfect people—we’re going to slip up and get it wrong from time to time.

But the quote also points to correcting our mistakes and making things right. We miss out if we only throw our hands up and say "oh well." The true growth comes when we learn from our experience: change our strategy, have the difficult conversation, or make the necessary apology.

Like my friend encouraged me, I hope this email encourages you.

If you’ve been making mistakes, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in good company—the company of those who care enough to get out there and try.

So in the words of Ms. Frizzle, “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”