There’s a story of a legendary mistake that goes around business schools, which is usually attributed to either Jack Welch, Thomas Edison or a high-level manager at IBM.

Sometimes it’s quoted as $500 Million, sometimes $500,000 or $10 Million.

It doesn’t really matter who said it or if it really even happened at all.  The message is still a good one.

It’s a lesson on failure and how managers should treat employees who fail.  The lesson can also be applied to how we treat our own failures because failure it part of business.  If you’re a perfectionist, then business will be tough on you and tough for your employees because you’re going to fail sometimes and that’s okay.  It’s never easy, but it’s always an opportunity to learn and grow.

Watch the episode below to hear how one of the best business managers of all time handled failure.

Timeline:

0:00 – Failure is part of the system.
1:30 – 10,000 ways it didn’t work.
2:10 – Lessons from a $500 Million mistake.
3:10 – One thing you can do to be more successful.