Owning Up to Your Mistakes Makes People Respect You More

Erik now works under the philosophy that if you screw something up, it’s best to just own up to the mistake. At his previous jobs, he would play the corporate game where he just wouldn’t mention it, would imply that other people made the mistake, or he’d work around it. When he left that company, he and a guy named Clint Stevens formed a business intelligence company that did work for the US Navy. It was mostly a two-man shop. One time he was in a meeting and the customer was pissed because something had gone awry. Clint came out and took complete responsibility for the mistake. Erik could visibly see the project manager that was in that meeting visibly relax a bit and his anger subsided. He switched gears from complaining about the problem to helping us fix the problem. This caused Erik to fix his own tactic and he saw the same result; people started off mad but the moment you own up to your mistake, they are a lot less angry. Now, he’s not saying take the blame for something you didn’t do but if you are involved, don’t make excuses, just own up to it. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!