Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not. — Phil Crosby

Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not.

Author: Phil Crosby

Insight: We live in a culture that punishes mistakes, which makes people defensive about getting things wrong. But here's what this quote actually lets you off the hook for: the mistake itself isn't the real problem. You're allowed to be wrong. What's harder to excuse—and what actually matters more—is staying wrong, or worse, not even bothering to find out. The sneaky part is how easy it is to call something "too complicated" or "not my job" and move on. You make a call based on what you knew at the time, it doesn't work out, and then you have a choice. You can update your thinking, ask questions, read something new, talk to someone who knows better. Or you can just repeat the same decision next time because at least it's familiar. This distinction changes how you should think about failure. A wrong decision isn't shameful—it's data. But refusing to learn from it? That's the real waste. The people who get better at their work, who adapt faster, who make fewer critical mistakes over time, aren't the ones who never fail. They're the ones obsessed with understanding why it failed. That restless curiosity is the only thing that separates a learning curve from just repeating the same mistakes.