Herbie Hancock, one of my favorite musicians, made a big mistake as a young musician while playing piano with the then world famous Miles Davis band.\u00a0 Herbie described the incident in an interview, \u00a0and his experience was something that many people can relate to.<\/p>\n
My Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n I had been “kicking myself” about an error made earlier in the day with a big client.\u00a0 The error was heavy on my mind….it seemed like the only thing I could do was to dwell on the mistake.\u00a0\u00a0 The mistake that I, and I alone, had made.<\/p>\n While the actual impact to my client was minimal, obsession with perfectionism ( “I Just Don’t Make Mistakes!!!”)\u00a0 was running rampant inside of me.<\/p>\n More important, I hadn’t come up with a solid pivot or next step.\u00a0 All I could think about was “how in the world could I have done that.”\u00a0 Time seemed to be standing still….<\/p>\n Herbie Hancock’s Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n Much the same with Herbie.\u00a0 In the middle of performing the classic “So What,” he played the wrong chord.\u00a0 Herbie took his hands off the piano, puts them around his ears, and then, froze.<\/p>\n But Miles didn’t freeze.\u00a0 He only paused for a second, and then without hesitation, his trumpet produced the perfect notes to complement the chord that Herbie had played in error.\u00a0 Miles pivoted in the moment.\u00a0 He turned the mistake of the wrong chord into a sweet, melodic, improvisational wonder.<\/p>\n According to Herbie, Miles later stated that he didn’t know that Herbie had made an error. \u00a0Miles had viewed the chord played as something that happened in that moment, and had to be dealt with.<\/p>\n Miles didn’t hear the chord as a mistake, instead, he decided to make the chord “something that fit” into the song.<\/p>\n The Lesson<\/strong><\/p>\n We all make mistakes.\u00a0 Owning the mistake, making adjustments, and learning from the mistake – now that’s a much productive process.\u00a0 Like Miles, we have to seek ways to somehow make our mistakes “something that fits.”<\/p>\n After all mistakes happen, and when they do, it’s no time to freeze. \u00a0As Herbie notes in the video below, mistakes can become opportunities to turn poison into medicine.<\/p>\n Check out the Herbie Hancock interview for full impact:<\/p>\n