By Danny W. Pettry II, M.Ed. M.S., LPC, NCC, CTRS-BH

I remember hearing teachers give this advice:

“Do it right the first time, and you won’t have to do it again.”

It sounds like good advice.

And sometimes it is.

If I’m completing a task I already know how to do, paying attention and doing quality work the first time can save time.

But there’s a problem with applying that advice to learning.

When you’re trying something new, difficult, or unfamiliar, “do it right the first time” can send an entirely different message:

• Don’t mess up.
• Don’t make a mistake.
• Don’t look foolish.
• Don’t fail.

And if you believe you’re supposed to get something right the first time, you might decide the safest option is not to try at all.

You’re Supposed to Mess Up

Think about learning to skateboard (which I did a lot during the 90s).

Nobody steps onto a skateboard for the first time and lands a perfect kickflip.

• You try.
• You mess up.
• You adjust your feet.
• You try again.
• You fall.
• You learn something.
• You try again.
• Eventually, you get a little closer.
• And one day, you land it. (I practiced from summer of 1995 and finally landed it in the spring of 1996.

The mistakes weren’t interruptions in the learning process.

The mistakes were part of the learning process.

The same thing happens when we learn to play an instrument, speak another language, shoot a basketball, write, paint, cook, lead, teach, use new technology, or develop almost any other skill.

• We practice.
• We make mistakes.
• We learn.
• We adjust.
• And we practice again.

Quantity Can Lead to Quality

There’s a popular story about a photography class that illustrates this idea.

As the story is commonly told, photographer and professor Jerry Uelsmann divided students into two groups.

• One group was evaluated based on the quantity of photographs they produced.
• The other group was evaluated based on the quality of a single photograph.

You might expect the students concentrating on one perfect photograph to produce the best work.

Instead, the story says the best photographs came from the students who produced lots of photographs.

Why?

• They were practicing.
• They experimented with composition.
• They experimented with lighting.
• They tried different approaches.
• They made mistakes.
• Then they used what they learned to make the next photograph better.

An earlier version of this story appears in David Bayles and Ted Orland’s Art & Fear, where the lesson involves a ceramics class rather than photography.

Regardless of the version, I love the lesson:

You don’t become good at something by thinking about doing it perfectly. You become good at it by doing it.

• Practice.
• Mess up.
• Learn.
• Practice again.

What If Edison Had to Get It Right the First Time?

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work – Edison

Thomas Edison is often associated with another way of thinking about failure.

He reportedly rejected the idea that his many unsuccessful experiments were simply failures. Instead, he viewed them as discoveries about approaches that didn’t work.

Think about that mindset.

Imagine trying something hundreds—or even thousands—of times without getting the result you wanted.

Now imagine someone standing beside you saying:

“You should have done it right the first time.”

Innovation would disappear pretty quickly.

So would creativity.

So would learning.

When you’re attempting something that has already been mastered, instructions can help you repeat a proven process.

But when you’re doing something difficult, creative, innovative, or new to you, mistakes provide information.

• That didn’t work. Why?
• What can I change?
• What did I learn?
• What should I try next?

Failure becomes feedback.

Practice Doesn’t Mean Repeating the Same Mistake

There’s another important distinction.

Making mistakes alone doesn’t automatically make us better.

We have to learn from them.

If I practice something incorrectly 1,000 times without changing anything, I may simply become very good at doing it incorrectly.

The better process looks something like this:

Practice → Mess up → Reflect → Learn → Adjust → Practice again

Then repeat.

Each attempt gives you information for the next attempt.

That’s how experience develops.

And eventually, something that once seemed incredibly difficult becomes something you know how to do.

Maybe We Need Different Advice

Instead of telling someone:

“Do it right the first time, and you won’t have to do it again.”

Maybe we should tell them:

“Give it your best attempt. Pay attention to what happens. Learn from it. Then try again.”

Or we could return to a much older piece of advice:

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

There’s a lot of wisdom in those few words.

Trying again doesn’t mean ignoring what happened the first time.

It means bringing what you learned from the first attempt into the second.

And the second into the third.

And the third into the fourth.

Final Activity: Who Would You Pick?

Let’s finish with an activity.

Imagine you’ve been given an important assignment:

Put together a winning basketball team.

You have two potential players.

Player #1

• This person has never missed a shot.
• Never lost a basketball game.
• Never missed a game-winning shot.
• In fact, this person has never made a mistake playing competitive basketball.

Player #2

This person missed more than 9,000 shots.

• He lost almost 300 games.
• Twenty-six times, he was trusted to take the game-winning shot—
• and missed.
• You only have room for one of them on your team.

Who do you pick?

Player #1?

Or Player #2?

Think about your answer before you continue.

If you picked Player #1, congratulations.

You picked me. Danny Pettry.

• I’ve never played on a competitive basketball team.
• That’s why I’ve never missed a game-winning shot.
• I’ve never lost a basketball game.
• I’ve never made a mistake playing competitive basketball.
• I have a perfect record.

Of course, you probably do not want me on your basketball team.

So who is Player #2?

Michael Jordan.

Jordan famously described his failures—”thousands of missed shots, hundreds of lost games, and missed opportunities when he had been trusted to take the winning shot—and connected those failures directly to his success.“

That’s the point.

Michael Jordan didn’t become Michael Jordan because he avoided mistakes.

He became great through years of playing, practicing, missing, learning, adjusting, and trying again.

A person who never makes mistakes may be perfect.

Or…

they may have never tried.

So the next time you’re attempting something difficult, don’t make your goal:

“I have to get this right the first time.”

Make your goal:

• Try.
• Mess up.
• Learn.
• Adjust.
• Try again.

Because sometimes the people with the most mistakes are the people who have spent the most time in the game.