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Looking back, what is one mistake you made early in your career that you wish you could avoid—and how can I avoid it?

When starting out, mistakes are inevitable—everyone makes them. I’ve realized that what can make them harder is being too self-critical afterward. Instead of learning and moving forward, it’s easy to get stuck overanalyzing or doubting yourself. I’m trying to shift toward seeing mistakes as feedback rather than failure.

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John’s Answer

The mistake I would undo is taking feedback personally early on. When someone told me my work needed to change, I heard it as a judgment about me rather than information about the work. That made me defensive, and defensiveness is expensive. It slowed my growth, and worse, it quietly taught the people around me to stop telling me things.

What fixed it was learning to separate the work from myself. Feedback on something you made is not a judgment on who you are. Once that clicked, I started asking for feedback before it was offered, which changes the whole dynamic. You stop bracing for it and start using it.

Your point about being too self-critical is the same problem facing inward. Both come from treating a mistake as evidence about your worth instead of information about what to fix. Instead of dwelling on it, simply identify what you would do differently next time and do your best to apply it in the future.

One thing I noticed from years of leading teams. The people who advanced fastest were not the ones who made the fewest mistakes. They were the ones you only had to tell something once, because they took it in without getting defensive about it.
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Devin’s Answer

First of all, as equally important or more important than the work you do, is who is managing you while you're doing it. Look for someone who is a leader and is supportive of you as a person not just an employee.

Second, realize that your manager is one of your most important customers. Make it easy for them to manage you (without sacrificing more than you're willing to of course). Regularly reach out to them on updates. Let them know you intend to take an important action based on specific evidence but ask their opinion before doing so. Ask them if you can set up 1:1 times if they haven't already. If they do have 1:1 times set up, provide agendas ahead of time so they know what you want to talk about. Ask them what is stressing them out and what they're working on. Bring ideas for team improvement.

If you're looking to improve the experience of your customers, including your manager, you'll be doing pretty well. But please don't be a kiss up, that's not really helping anyone.
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Josh’s Answer

Exiting college, I had earned several accolades for leadership and working with other people. This and other high-level praise led me to believe that I knew everything I needed to skyrocket to the top of a company. Because of this, I limited myself in learning from others from my managers or the company. When things got tough, I took off citing 'they don't know what they are talking about' and that I could do better.

I wish I would have opened up to others to really learn from them. I let my arrogance get the better of me. Stay humble and be open to learning lessons from every success and setback.
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The most common early mistake is tying your identity directly to your professional output, which transforms a simple operational error into a deeply personal failure.
You can avoid this by adopting a growth mindset, explicitly separating your self-worth from your results and treating mistakes as neutral data points for a system upgrade.
Establish an objective "post-mortem" ritual for every error: document the factual sequence, identify the workflow gap, update your protocol, and immediately pivot forward.
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Ashley’s Answer

Always bet on yourself!!
Don’t be scared to take beneficial opportunities.
When I was in my 20s I had a major opportunity. It was on the west coast and I didn’t go because I was scared to leave home and my relationship.. Definitely should have taken that and I knew it, but anxiety got the best of me. It could have changed my whole trajectory and I would have avoided inevitable heartbreak that came after haha.

Life still worked out for me and I was able to build a great reputation and go far in my industry. But I would think about that opportunity throughout the years.

You are young. Please live!! Do the things you desire. Follow your gut. If it doesn’t workout, it’s okay. That is life. We are all trying to figure it out and nothing is set in stone.

Keep an open mind and be open to feedback.
Work under strong leadership
Have your moral compass intact(not everyone will)
Speak up for yourself(respectfully)
Express your desire for knowledge and growth and be willing to put in that work(this is 70% of how I got to where I am)

Hope this is helpful!
Thank you comment icon Thank you so much, Ashley! Kayleigh
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Karen’s Answer

Kayleigh,

Embracing a growth mindset means believing in your ability to keep learning and improving. This happens by trying new things and learning from them, even if they don't go perfectly.

For me, it took time to realize I didn't have to wait for an invitation to speak. Being younger and less experienced, I thought I should let my more seasoned colleagues take the lead. At one point, I was the only woman among 12 sales professionals, and I realized I needed to speak up to avoid being stuck with all the small tasks. It felt awkward at first, but I improved over time. Now, I rarely hesitate to share my thoughts.

Karen
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