Arnon Barnes: Are you bigger than your mistakes?

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ARNON BARNES

International Speaker, Peak Performance Trainer and Business Mentor Arnon Barnes says mistakes can be a challenge.

Every time I write an article for this wonderful magazine, I use my personal experiences from my different businesses as a form of inspiration. During the past few weeks, I was confronted with a challenge, a mistake that could have cost me a lot of money! At first, I was relaxed when I received the news of this ‘error in judgement’, this mistake. And then I moved from being relaxed to a bit concerned, back to relaxed, to angry, to frustrated and am glad to say I am now totally relaxed and back in my power.

The reason for sharing this with you is because many times I see business owners worrying and being nervous about errors and mistakes in their business caused by either poor thinking or simple lousy decision making. And this normally happens when we are either too eager or too emotional. I always say: ‘’When emotions are high, intelligence is low.” That’s why I always recommend the business leaders that I coach never to make decisions in an emotional state. Because when you make a decision from an emotional state what can follow as a result is, usually, a dark cloud of challenges.

When you make a mistake, treat it as an opportunity to learn. Especially in business! The reality is, if you want to swim with the sharks be prepared to get bitten. In other words: be OK with making mistakes. So, during this business challenge I realized how important it is to be resilient and centred. Almost like being the eye of the storm. When there is chaos happening around you, ask yourself: ‘’Am I the calm, eye of the storm, or am I the storm?’’

And this topic leads to one major factor, probably one of the most undervalued skillsets that I believe entrepreneurs and business leaders need in order to succeed and I mean succeed BIG. And that is a resilient mindset! Because it is so easy to be ‘taken out of the game’. Especially by other people’s comments or harsh words, even if they really don’t know you and what you stand for.

I believe one of the most important factors in being a successful businessperson is your ability to handle the heat. In other words, what’s your ability to stay centred in your power when the shit ‘hits the fan’ as they say? What is your ability to be the person, to be the leader that can control their emotions and not let other people’s garbage affect you and take you out of the game?