I was talking to a friend recently about the regret they have about their college major having transitioned to an indirectly related career. In general, I like to think of mistakes as accessories to success, modifiers or detours providing complementary skills or experience, even when they are traumatic in isolation. Mistakes are often what make us singular because the things we categorize as success are commonly pursued. Still, we all have regrets.
Along the line of my friend, one of mine is not taking programming courses in high school even though their teacher sought me out to join one.1 It wasn’t until 5 years later that I realized my interest on my own. Another, was when my first app got the attention of a Silicon Valley founder and I just ghosted him not realizing success is much harder to achieve alone. I’m not sure I’d wish to change time for fear of what else it might change, but in isolation, those were mistakes.
What’s one decision you might change if you could?
Footnotes
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He got me suspended a year earlier for a violent cartoon I drew in MSPaint. I didn’t trust him or at least I didn’t want his “help.” In retrospect, he was consistently a good guy even if he was simple. ↩