“Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don’t look back at it too long. Mistakes are life’s way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.”—Og Mandino
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And so it came to pass that Hollywood actor David Niven was at a fancy ball, standing at the bottom of a grand staircase, talking to a man he had just met. Two women at the top of the stairs started to descend.
The thespian told the man, “That’s the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen.”
The man stiffened. “That’s my wife.”
Embarrassed, Niven quickly said, “I meant the other one.”
“That’s my daughter,” the man told the actor.
Niven looked the man calmly in the eye and said, “I didn’t say it!”
Blunders are frequently regarded as mistakes or missteps that occur in our daily lives. Nevertheless, they possess a more profound symbolic significance beyond merely being an error. These miscalculations can embody our flaws, vulnerabilities, and even our shared humanity.
Blunders serve as a reminder that perfection is unattainable and that making mistakes is a natural part of life. Indeed, blunders can be viewed as essential components of our personal growth and development.
Historically, blunders have significantly influenced the evolution of cultures and societies. The tale of Icarus in ancient Greek mythology serves as a warning about the dangers of excessive pride and ignoring cautionary advice.
In like manner, in Chinese culture, the notion of “losing face” is intricately linked to the anxiety surrounding the possibility of making a mistake in public. In both instances, errors are perceived as sources of shame and humiliation, underscoring the cultural emphasis on their avoidance.
More often than not, politicians do them unintentionally. Here are some of those, as chronicled in The Book of Lists:
“Facts are stupid things,” said Ronald Reagan as he addressed the Republican National Convention in 1988. He was misquoting John Adams, who in 1770, wrote: “Facts are stubborn things.” Reagan reportedly repeated the mistake several times.
Years earlier, in 1982, Reagan told the American people: “Now, we are trying to get unemployment to go up, and I think we are going to succeed.”
George Bush was Reagan’s vice-president. In 1988, speaking of his eight years as vice-president under Reagan, Bush said: “We have had triumphs, we have made mistakes, we have had sex.” What he actually meant to say was “we have had setbacks.”
A lot of famous people have committed blunders and errors in their lives, according to the Book of Lists. Carl Sandburg, considered as “one of the greatest American poets and biographers,” had committed a mistake despite the fact he won prizes and awards for poetry and was also well-known as a singer and reciter of American folk songs.
In his famous biography, Abraham Lincoln – The Prairie Years, he wrote: “Lincoln’s mother was standing at the door of their cabin singing Greenland’s Icy Mountain.” The faux pas: the song was not written until twenty-two years after Lincoln’s death!
Who hasn’t heard of Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. His sidekick was Dr. John Watson. Both have appeared together in several Hollywood films.
According to the author, Dr. Watson once suffered a bullet wound during a military action. In the novel, A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson’s wound is in the shoulder. While in another novel, The Sign of Four, Dr. Watson’s wound is in the leg. Perhaps, Sherlock Holmes could figure that one out.
Writers are not the only people who make mistakes. Painters do, too. When Emanuel Leutze painted “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” depicting the Stars and Stripes being carried in the boat. So, where’s the error?
Well, for the uninformed, the Stars and Stripes was not adopted as the American flag until June 14, 1777 – half a year after Washington’s crossing.
If they can make mistakes, why can’t you? So, don’t worry about making blunders. God has given us the power to make our own choice. After all, as Mahatma Gandhi puts it, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
Once you have committed a mistake, try to correct it. “When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it – immediately,” Stephen R. Covey suggests.
