Learn from entrepreneurs’ mistakes

Every entrepreneur I know has made mistakes. Some are little. Some are not (do the words "New Coke" mean anything to you?).

As with all areas of our lives, success in business isn’t necessarily reserved for those who make the fewest number of mistakes. Rather, success favors those who face their mistakes squarely and learn from them.

And if we can be successful as we learn and grow from our own mistakes, how much further ahead are we if we can learn and grow from the mistakes of others?

In the Jan. 18 edition of BusinessWeek magazine http://businessweek.com/search/06brows1.htm , 10 entrepreneurs and CEOs from companies with annual revenues ranging from $500,000 to $1.6 billion were interviewed. Among other questions, all of them were asked to look back on 2005 and talk about the things they wish they had done differently. Even without knowing a lot about the respective companies, I found their responses interesting and thought-provoking — and perhaps instructive to entrepreneurs everywhere.

By Joseph Walker
Brigham Young University

Full Story: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635177695,00.html