The above quote was one of my dad’s favorites. He pulled it out whenever his kids tried to make excuses for why things didn’t play out the way we wanted.
Making excuses seems to be back in vogue these days. I’ve caught myself in this predicament a couple of times lately. I had a couple of big deals that didn’t work out as planned, and I spent a lot of time wondering “What if?” and making excuses.
Many of my clients, seasoned pros in the real estate world, have told me that they catch themselves second-guessing their actions. A common theme among them is the refrain, “If I had just stopped while I was on top and hadn’t done that last deal…” Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do in these cases except learn from the experience and move on.
Bob Huggins, the colorful head basketball at WVU, once told a story about how he learned the importance of not looking back and wondering, “What if?”. He was born and raised in West Virginia. When this story took place, he was home on a break from his student days at WVU, where he was a player on the basketball team.
After playing in a pickup game he got a ride home from one of his childhood coaches. The coach was driving an old pickup truck, which Bob and his friends piled into. Bob started to look in the rearview mirror, and was surprised to find that the truck didn’t have one.
When he asked the old coach about it, the coach responded, “We don’t look back in life around here, so I don’t need a rearview mirror.”
I’m not sure I completely agree with the coach’s mentality. It’s important on occasion to remember things from your past. But there is something to be said for not living in the past, or dwelling on it. A glance back can help us to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.
“Good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is the result of bad judgment.”
-Mark Twain
Learn from your mistakes, but also let yourself move past them.
Have a great weekend,
Ro