Making Others’ Mistakes Valuable to You
We all make mistakes, ranging from small ones (like spilling coffee on our document) to big ones, which may greatly affect the lives of others. Ideally, mistakes should be made only once. But an essential thing to do is to avoid making that mistake. Is it possible? Yes, it is! All you have to do is learn from other people’s mistakes!
Learning the easy way or learning from what you observe in your surroundings is a lot more beneficial for you than making the mistake yourself. You are spared from the pain of doing it all wrong, and the regret that you did not value what your parents and others’ experiences taught you.
Take for example the rising cases of injury and horrifying deaths of people who take selfies in dangerous locations in the hopes of getting a lot of followers. To stop these incidents from ever happening again, the public is warned not to give the thought a try the next time they want to take selfies. Hopefully, this will lessen and ultimately reduce to zero the numbers of casualties of vanity.
You don’t want to make headlines in newspapers by dying while taking a selfie. Unless you are already a pro at extreme activities and it is legal, there are myriads of options out there where you can be famous and successful without giving up your safety.
As one classic proverb says, “Prevention is better than cure.” The wisest thing you can do is to learn from the mistakes of others by recognizing what they did wrong, and making sure you don’t share the same fate.
Let me tell you a story popularized online about two brothers who grew up together, raised by an alcoholic father. One became a drunkard himself while the other grew up to become a successful person. How did this happen when the two lived under the same roof?
The one who followed his father’s footsteps never learned from his father’s mistakes. He went on living the same way, and he ended up the same way as his father: miserable and drunk.
Fortunately, the other brother knew where to look and what to avoid. He used his father’s mistake to his advantage. Where is he now? He is happily enjoying the life that his father and brother failed to experience.
The Bible does not fall short in giving us precious stories that we can learn a lot from. For example, the famous victory of David over Goliath teaches us to be always humble and to never judge the capabilities of others just by their outward appearance. Also, the story of Samson and Delilah makes us realize that following the Lord’s plan for us and being committed to our mission is the best way to fully reap God’s rewards.
I hope you can be the brother who chose to live according to what God wants him to do. Learn from others’ mistakes, and you will never go wrong in your life.
Reference
Mohn, Tanya. 2017. “Death By Selfie: Serious Incidents, Including Injury And Death, Are On The Rise.” Forbes, January 31, 2017. Accessed May 5, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2017/01/31/death-by-selfie-serious-incidents-including-injury-and-death-are-on-the-rise/#210fd4538377.