"It would be a mistake to look back and say that I should have turned right or left. If you hit a hole in one on every hole, you wouldn't play golf for very long. I believe that it pays to look forward."
This is one of the key characteristics of those that are extraordinarily successful in any endeavor in life. It definitely applies to business and management in a big way.
Buffett said this in response to the question of if he had any regrets over the years at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A).
This doesn't mean we don't learn from our mistakes, but when you continually look back at mistakes, what you're really doing is no longer learning, but privately punishing yourself. If others continually bring up your past mistakes all the time, they're doing the same thing.
If we are able to look back at our mistakes in a business leadership position, it means we've not only survived, but thrived. You won't still be in leadership, whether it's owing your owing your own business or managing someone else's, if you mistakes are too many and too big.
So if you're in a place of leadership, good, you've managed to limit the number of big mistakes that could take down your division or company. It means you're doing something right.
The point is that those who overly keep track of past errors, will inevitably repeat them, because what we focus on will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
That's why Buffett says it pays far more to look forward than to look back. The other thing he says about Golf, if victories are common and too easy, nobody would want to stick around in the game. It't challenges and overcoming them that makes people want to continue working toward their goals.
Looking ahead is the only thing we can really do, it's the only place where there's a future.
Other Buffett Resources:
Warren Buffett: The trouble with being a legend
Warren Buffett: 'I told you so'
Remember to Sign up for my feed, bizzbite and digg this!
Sponsored link: The outsourcing every manager requires - Tampa Locksmith
Comment Preview