When You Make a Big Mistake - Get Over It and Move On

Posted By: Melissa Kennedy In: Business Professional

On July 4th, the city of San Diego had a huge fireworks display planned. They hired a professional company who promised to have an amazing show and even to have the fireworks choreographed to music. In fact, the celebration has always been a huge one and the Big Bay Boom extravaganza this year promised to be even better.



However, when show time came around, there was a technical glitch that caused all of the fireworks to go off during the first 15 seconds. It was a huge explosion, and afterwards, just silence. The audience waited, wondering what had happened. Then, the official word came that the show was canceled because of the malfunction.



The company responsible for putting together the show was reputable. They had done the show in 2010 and 2011. They weren't unprofessional. What happened was a huge mistake and one that will be costing their company a lot of business. It's horrible to imagine being the person in charge of the display when they realized what had happened. Standing there with no more fireworks and a 15 second long show, it had to be a nightmare.



Mistakes happen, even really, really big ones. So, when they happen, how can keep your dignity and move on?



Here are a few things we can learn from this mistake:



Accept what happened - The company was upfront about saying what the problem was. Instead of saying that they have no clue as to what happened or trying to sugarcoat it, they accepted it. This is the first step, and often the hardest. It's so tempting to continue to try to work through a mistake, but that rarely works. The best thing you can do is accept that the mistake was made and go from there.



Accept the blame - Although the company cited a computer malfunction in the program that connected all of the towers, they were first to accept the blame. In fact, they said that they are 100% percent to blame for the mistake and they offered to do another show on a different day for free. Although the city hasn't said what they plan to do, most people think that they will just opt to have next year's display done for free. It's important in this step to not try to pass the blame onto someone else. Even if you think that it wasn't all your fault, take the blame. Trying to point fingers is just unprofessional and doesn't make you look any better. Instead, use this hardship as a way to show grace under pressure. Accept responsibility and look for ways to minimize the damage.



Don't beat yourself up - Once you've taken the steps to repair the damage, you have to let it go. Even though there may be times when someone will want to bring up your past mistake, you have to have move beyond it. The key to doing this is to stop beating yourself up. When you find yourself doing it, think about what you would tell your best friend if they were in this situation, then take your own advice. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't tell your friend that they are awful and don't deserve to ever work again.



Prove yourself again - You can bet that the next time the company does a fireworks display, especially in San Diego, they are going to go above and beyond in order to impress people and restore their reputation. When we make mistakes, it's really important to acknowledge that we will have to prove ourselves all over again. This means that you have to be willing to go the extra mile in order to undo the damage the mistake might have done to your professional reputation.



When you make a big mistake, forgive yourself and move forward. These are the tests that remind us who we are and give us the opportunities to rise above and show what we are made of.



Have you ever made a huge mistake? What did you do about it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.