When you are wrong, or have made a mistake, promptly admit it, confessing your role as soon as you can … because this is the most loving and helpful action a true warrior can take. Okay, let’s think about this. When is the best time to find out that you are facing a problem or that someone in your circle has made a mistake that will affect or impact everyone? Perhaps it’s not a very significant mistake. Perhaps no one will know if you don’t say anything. Perhaps there is no impact today from the mistake.

Let’s use a scenario to illustrate this point. You are at work, bolting together an insignificant part of the landing gear on a Boeing 747. You notice that the bolts are cad-plated steel, not the stainless steel ones that you normally use. Rather than stopping, and going to get the right bolts, you shrug your shoulders and assume that someone must have decided that a change was in order. You finish the assembly. As you’re leaving at the end of your shift, you ask the parts guy about it. “Hey, have we switched bolts from stainless recently?” “No. Why do you ask?”

Being unwilling to admit a mistake, you say, “No reason, just wondering about potential cost savings.” By Monday, you have forgotten all about it and don’t notice this problem again. Three years later, a 747 crashes on landing, when the landing gear fails, and fatalities are reported. The subsequent investigation reveals that the cause was a cascading effect from a series of small insignificant errors. One of which was the installation of the wrong kind of bolts on a minor assembly in the landing gear. The FAA subsequently grounds all 747s and requires an inspection of all landing-gear assemblies. It is reported that there were only an insignificant number of issues of non-conformance. Those issues that were found are corrected. Imagine the cost of this entire process, in lives as well as money.

Now rewind the tape and let’s go back to the scene when you are walking out the door. Having asked the parts guy about switching from stainless steel bolts and finding out the switch never happened, you immediately pivot on the spot. “We have a problem then! I just finished installing an assembly and the bolts were cad plated, not stainless. We have to get that fixed right now before we leave for the day!”

The result of this is a lack of all negative consequences. This is sort of like conducting a pre-mortem1 (an advance investigation of potential pitfalls and/or failures that gets conducted before you even start a new venture), so that you can avoid having to conduct a post-mortem (a careful investigation of the cause of failure after it happens). It is impossible to count the number of post-mortems that didn’t have to happen … so there is no statistic one can hold onto that will illustrate the impact of admitting and rectifying mistakes as quickly as possible. Somehow that is not very satisfying. Human nature wants us to conduct post-mortems in a near miss so we can all gasp and say, “Wasn’t that a close thing?” Being unaware of all the missed calamities, because we acted rightly and responsibly, just doesn’t seem to be as thrilling. The question is, are we here for the thrill or to enjoy the longest and best life possible?

If you want the best possible life, admit your mistakes as soon as possible and get them corrected. The true warrior knows that it is never too late to do the right thing. You are warriors and by following the personal discipline of admitting your mistakes and/or identifying problems and sharing the bad news ASAP, you will be part of a team that is a force for good and that creates positive and effective change in the lives of those around you. Fixing stuff that goes wrong sooner … prevents significant stuff from going wrong later. The less disaster in your life, the more you will enjoy it. So it has been written.