Make Your Eight-year-old Self Proud

One of my core personal philosophies is “making the best mistakes possible”. I'm extremely evangelistic about it.

Failure is an important element in the cycle of innovation and growth, but it’s often overrated. Failure only counts when you’re moving the needle and/or becoming a valuable data point for others. If you’re not, you’re wasting your time.

You should aim to avoid easily-made mistakes by learning from the experiences of others.

Strive to break new ground with every failure. Fail better, every time.

You'll learn from the reps, and become an excellent data point for anyone who comes after you.

However, this idea isn't limited to what we can learn from others - it also points to what we can learn from ourselves.