Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving yo... — Steve Jobs

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

Author: Steve Jobs

Insight: Most of us are taught that mistakes are things to hide, minimize, or spin. We spend energy covering our tracks instead of learning from them. But Jobs is pointing at something counterintuitive: the speed of your admission matters more than the mistake itself. When you drag out the acknowledgment, you're not protecting yourself—you're just delaying the moment when you can actually fix things. The deeper insight is that admitting mistakes quickly is almost selfish, in the best way. It frees you up. Once you've said "I got this wrong," you don't have to waste mental energy on the cover-up anymore. You can redirect that focus toward what actually works. This applies everywhere: in relationships, at work, in how you parent, in friendships. The couples and teams that move fastest aren't the ones who never fail—they're the ones who fail, own it in thirty seconds, and get back to building. There's also something quietly ambitious in this stance. It signals that you're more interested in getting the outcome right than in looking right. That confidence—the willingness to be visibly wrong—is actually what gives people permission to take real risks. Without it, everyone just plays it safe.

Source: Interview with Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs 563, 2011