Hidden Brain - Learning From Your Mistakes

No matter who you are, it's guaranteed that at some point in life you'll make a mistake. Many of us find failures to be uncomfortable — so we try our best to ignore them and move on. But what if there was a way to turn that discomfort into an opportunity? This week, we begin a two part mini-series on the psychology of failure and feedback. Psychologist Lauren Eskreis-Winkler teaches us how to stop ignoring our mistakes, and instead, start to learn from them.

Duration: 57m
Broadcast on: 24 Jul 2023
Audio Format: other

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In the 1940s, a teenager named Russell Solomon sold used records out of his father's drug store in Sacramento, California. He had dreams of turning this enterprise into a full-fledged business. In the 1960s, he opened a small record store in the suburbs of Sacramento. He called it Tower Records. The business took off. Russell Solomon opened storefronts in Los Angeles, in New York City, even Japan. By the '70s, Tower Records had become a musical mecca, with stores frequented by the most famous artists in the world. "Shop Tower Records in the heart of Sunset Strip tonight and every night of the year until midnight. It is a good place." Tower grew into an international billion-dollar empire. In the late 1990s, Tower took on $110 million in debt to expand the business even further. Around the same time, music fans were turning to the Internet to get their tunes. Digital file-sharing sites like Napster exploded in popularity. "You don't need to hold music to have music to orbit 1.5 million songs." Tower sales began to decline. More disruptors showed up. But Russell Solomon refused to see the threat for what it was. An existential risk to the business he had built. "As for the whole concept of beaming something into one's home, that may come along someday. That's for sure. But it will come along over a long period of time, and we'll be able to deal with it and change our focus and change the way we do business. As far as your CD collection or in our CD inventory, for that matter, it's going to be around for a long, long time, believe me." Tower Records filed for bankruptcy in 2004. It's easy to hear the story and think, "How could someone so successful ignore such a serious threat? Why is it, when faced with possible failure, so many entrepreneurs, leaders and managers bury their heads in the sand?" The one thing we don't ask, "How often do we make that same mistake too?" Today, we begin a two-part mini-series that examines one of the most serious limitations we face as human beings. Whether we are 7 or 70, many of us have trouble learning from failure and setbacks. And when the shoe is on the other foot, when we are in a position to help a colleague or friend identify some glaring shortcoming, many of us hesitate to speak plainly, worried we will come across as rude. What happens in the brain when we receive negative feedback and psychological techniques to help us seize the tools of learning and success, this week on Hidden Brain.

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