The information to Win in Business, the information to Win in Life, all wrapped up in one winning, weekly email. Winformation Weekly.

My 14 years’ experience of growing a business from £0-£100m as well as the life that goes with it.

No ads. No affiliate links. No BS.

Simon Says

Winformation this week...

I love making mistakes, well-intended ones anyway. It wasn’t always this way, however. When you first start on this journey, every mistake feels like it could be fatal! That’s not the case.

Because mistakes? They’re not just slip-ups. They’re investments, if you’re willing to see them that way. I’ll show you why a £20k mistake isn’t a disaster, but a 5-star lesson in disguise. If you’re feeling cautious about your next move or you can’t get a past failure out of your head, this week’s One Idea to Win in Business below is for you.

Sonja Lyubomirsky is the queen of all things happiness. With the US and the UK falling for the 6^th year in a row in the World Happiness Report, I think we could all do with some of her expertise. Sonja, author of The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness, graces us with some of her wisdom below in this week’s One Idea to Win in Life.

One Idea to Win in Business

How to Get a Return on Investment From Your Mistakes

I don’t see mistakes and small failings on the way as something to be scared of. In the early days it’s more “error” than “trial” as you take those early steps towards that first 3-5 year vision for your business. As you see the early mistakes play out, you realise they are usually one of two things:

1. A surface level scratch. Not an ideal result, but the lessons received in the days or weeks after are far more valuable than the slight hit taken.

Or, and even better

2. A happy accident. Something unexpectedly good takes place as a result of a mistake or "mini failure" that wouldn't have occurred otherwise.

It may well be worth considering putting a consideration in your budget for mistakes being made. This will breed confidence to try new things that should lead to success, but would be covered if not. More trial and eventually less error. When you include a budget line in your financial projections, the assumption is that there will be an upside to that cost. A ROI. Absolutely, you can see the cost of a mistake as an investment. But how?

An Investment In Your People

What’s more valuable than a team member who’s never made a mistake? A team member who’s made 5 or more. Gross misconduct and deliberate acts aside, only average founders and operators sack a team member for making mistakes. Elite-level entrepreneurs will see the cost of the error as an investment in the education of that individual.

A person you manage who has made an expensive mistake is more valuable than a fresh person who hasn’t. If they make a £20k error, you have just paid that sum to ensure that error is never made again.

Or, you could lose the money anyway and bring in a replacement who doesn’t have first hand knowledge of how not to repeat the very same mistake again, or worse.

Real World Case Studies

Every quarter I hold an “all hands” meeting where the team share their biggest win and how they engineered it. This is a sunshine meeting that is held in SMEs up and the down the country, standard, boring. But also I encourage everyone to share their biggest error.

Start with the most outgoing (don’t give a shit) team member and then see everyone else open up from there. The more honest, the better. It’s great that you can see the £20k as an investment in one person’s education, but if a department of 25 people can also hear how it played out, then you are really starting to upskill the team with real-world risk and reward, and not a textbook in sight.

Happy failing.

One Idea to Win in Life

How to Stop Overthinking and Start Feeling Happier: 5 Tips from THE Expert

What is happiness? Why don’t we have it, and how do we get it? So many questions. Quite often, people are battling with so many other things that they struggle to get around to actually being happy. So, what can we do about it?

Sonja Lyubomirsky enters the chat...Here are five tips from Lyubomirsky about how to improve your happiness.

Cultivate optimism. At times, it can be all too easy to assume the worst. It’s almost as if doing so means we are prepared and not disappointed when bad things happen. But that doesn’t help us. What does is practising looking on the bright side, perhaps even writing down what you imagine your best possible future to be, as well as taking time to think about what you are grateful for.

Overcoming the odds. It is estimated that our thoughts and behaviour influence 40% of our long-term happiness. It doesn’t matter if you have a low level of happiness. You just need to shape your surroundings and put a conscious effort into thinking and behaving like a positive person.

Don’t overthink it. From time to time, we have challenges and sometimes worries too. It’s no use carrying such worries around with us at all times, continually thinking about a problem. It’s more constructive to set aside specific time to work on solutions to a problem. Or perhaps to reframe it. For example, is that test you’re anxious about actually an opportunity to face your fears and show how far you have come?

Kindness for health. We’ve all seen people with ‘be kind’ in their social media bio getting stuck into a pile on online. Turns out actually being kind can alter gene expression associated with a healthier immune system.

Challenge yourself. Involve yourself in activity that makes you feel alive and focussed. Being happy is not a passive state. Like most things, it requires dedication. As so often in life, it’s in the doing and the learning and the journey that comes the happiness.

Win or Wonder?

Ask Me a Question…

No matter where you are on this mad journey. Starting out, scaling up, or somewhere in the messy middle feel free to ask me anything.

Business, life or mindset, I read and reply to every question. The best ones will get featured in future editions of Winformation, with your permission of course!

To ask, just hit “reply”, type away, and send. That’s it. No forms. No fuss.

Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!