Towards the end of 2021, something went wrong that was not entirely my responsibility, causing me to miss out on around €3,000. When I learned that a mistake had been made, I could only limit the damage instead of averting it.
I learned three lessons from that loss that can be applied to any major mistake, whether it is your own fault or not.
Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts
A single failure is rarely responsible for a result. Most of the time, a chain of coincidences, ignorance and mistakes leads to something going wrong. In retrospect, it seems as if it happened suddenly because the insidious development was ignored.
You need a lot of patience with larger projects to get anything done.
The first lesson from my mistake is: Look out for even small inconsistencies and solve them before they can develop into problems.
Take Responsibility
I was not responsible for the mistake that happened. Nevertheless, I am the one who has to bear the consequences. I should have listened better to my life vow §3, which says that you are responsible for everything in your life.
Of course, I cannot manage everything alone. I depend on other people as much as any human being. Nevertheless, all threads run together with me for my life. I am responsible for organizing and managing them. Even if you can't do everything yourself, you are still responsible for everything to a certain extent, especially when the negative consequences affect you.
The second lesson from my mistake, just like my third life vow, is: You are responsible for everything you are involved in.
Prevent Others from Making the Same Mistakes
The fact that I myself must carry the consequences of the mistake cannot be changed any more. However, I can protect other people from it. By telling others about it and offering my help, I prevent them from also having to learn the lesson “the hard way.”
One advantage of humanity is that we can learn from the mistakes of our peers and do not have to make every experience ourselves.
I am not responsible that the others take my tips seriously and act accordingly, but I can at least try to help them. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
My third lesson from my mistake is: Help others so they don't make the same mistake.