Monday, January 21, 2008

The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes

Scott Young:

Starting anything new involves mistakes. Tons of them, if you plan on being good. Although you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, there are a few that often go ignored. These mistakes accompany the first phase of anything and it is easy to repeat them in everything new that you do.

I don’t claim to be immune to these mistakes. Actually, I think it is simply because I have made these mistakes myself so frequently that I’ve begun to recognize them. I believe they come up simply by virtue of the forces that cause you to start something new. Unintended side effects of motivation, breaking out of your comfort zone or ignorance.

Here is the list:

  1. Expecting Too Much, Too Early
  2. Too Much Knowledge
  3. Overplanning, Under-doing
  4. Too Few Experiments
  5. Being Wrong Too Long
  6. Making Simple Endeavors Complex
  7. Failing to Attack From All Angles

Follow the link for much more on each point.

In organizations I've been a part of, I've seen #3 and #6 destroy group cohesion and momentum. Another organizational killer is #5. On a personal level, I probably struggle with #1, #3, and #4 the most, although I am not immune to any of them.

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