27 Comments
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Kevin Kermes's avatar

So, so true.

Quite often that wisdom is built from failing.

It’s one of the reasons I like reframing “fail” -> “learn.”

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Justin Welsh's avatar

One of the best ways to reframe it, Kevin.

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Lucas's avatar

Right in the moment I needed this. Thanks, Justin.

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Justin Welsh's avatar

Thanks, Lucas!

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Brent's avatar

I’m curious: in your experience, what’s been the most invisible wise decision you've made that paid off big over time? The kind no one noticed, but changed everything in hindsight?

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Sean G. McCormick's avatar

Failure is feedback.

Feedback is knowledge.

Knowledge is power.

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Jon Nelson's avatar

Also, read "Thinking in Bets", by Annie Duke - Good results are often luck, disguised as brilliance - its about making sound decisions that lead to raising your batting average of better results - a great read for sure

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Jon Nelson's avatar

The most gifted athletes don't necessarily win - often the underdogs outwork them with focused effort and deliberate practice. You mentioned "blind spots" - awareness is everything, as long as we're aware of the most critical variables at play - the "intelligent" or gifted ones are often able to coast through it all without the obsessive nature of an underdog - maybe its the ADHDer's and dyslexic's like me that gain the advantage of being forced to adapt and truly "learn how to learn" rather than just winning....

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Jared Moss's avatar

Thx for the sage advice Justin. Love the portion about being humble enough to ask others to point out our blindspots. Would love your comments on my recent post on CEO blindspots and how I can improve. Best, https://jaredmoss.substack.com/p/this-wont-sit-well-with-you-but-you?r=5v0srs

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Karl Tame's avatar

Nothing can save you, if you don’t want to save yourself…!

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Nicholas's avatar

Wisdom is what you earn when you notice your intelligence didn't learn you nothing.

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Dylan Monteverde's avatar

Wise words yet again, Justin. Cultivating a fine-tuned sense of judgment for business, money, and people is key to success. I live by: "If it's too good to be true, it isn't"...

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David Michael Vernich's avatar

This reminds me of one of the best stories that has stuck with me for many years that relates to this topic. To make a long story short, there was a banker who thought they were a pretty good golfer and one day, he was able to play 18 holes with Arnold Palmer. Arnold beat him but the banker felt he played pretty well and said to Arnold "You know, some of my best shots were better than your shots" to which Arnold replied "It's not how good your good shots are, it's how bad your bad shots are that are keeping you from being a golf pro."

Relating that to everyday life, anyone can make anything sound good if they only talk about the good parts (when it is smooth sailing and easy, and things are going great...everyone would find that enjoyable) but what really matter is how bad the bad parts are (because everything has a downside, it's just a matter of whether or not it is something you can deal with).

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Kyle's avatar

Lots of good content ideas in this one, Justin, as usual, your value is impeccable.

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Chi_nwen's avatar

Very accurate

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Markeith Braden's avatar

More often than not, its the wrong decisions we make in life that helps us grow in Wisdom.

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Jack Harmer the Wrinkly Writer's avatar

At my age finding those wiser isn't so easy. But I'll be chatting with my AI. That's far smarter and wiser than I am.

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Chris Ware's avatar

Interesting topic to put forward. Really resonated and contextualized some ongoing internal dialogue I’ve been having. My recent example of this is my business was hit by a more advanced fraudster than I have seen and we lost $42,000. Almost sunk us. Better judgement would have prevented this for sure.

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