Sadly, 99% will NOT learn from other’s mistakes

“Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” (Al Franken)

“The wise learn from other people’s mistakes and fools from their own.” So goes an ancient proverb that some say was first written in Aramaic.

“Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.” (Cato the Elder)

My wise old father always told me that you never learn from other people’s mistakes. Or from their experience. How daft is that – if it is true? Why do we not listen, read and observe what others do wrong? Or why do we not imitate or copy success? Why do we need to experience the same fate that many thousands or millions did before us, by doing things that simply do not work, has never worked, and will never work. There is NOTHING new in life – the more things change, the more they stay the same. If this is true, then surely there must be a manual somewhere that tells us exactly how things should be done, how to experience success, or failure.

My conclusion is that most (probably 99% of the population) do NOT learn from other people’s mistakes or experience. There may be many reasons for this, but I believe that ego, stubbornness and stupidity are three of the major culprits. Wise men will observe what does not work, or what should be done to achieve success. My dear friend, Thomas Ci-gar, is one of those wise men. He will research his topic, read about how successful people has gone about it, and then duplicate the recipe. His success rate is around 8/10.