During a hiatus from my business, I had the opportunity to spend several years learning to paint. Painting is a great metaphor for life. Consider, you have disciplines and boundaries, you learn the rules in order to break the rules which is how new concepts are developed, you must learn to suspend self-judgment, and you have to trust the process and have absolute faith that new ideas will come and new paintings will continue to appear. Most of all, you have to learn to follow the mistake.

Most novice painters, in the beginning of a piece, paint a beautiful little passage that is only a fragment of the entire painting. Then they spend the remainder of their time trying to complete the painting by not disturbing that very poignant piece. The result is a bad painting because they let a very small passage dictate the outcome of the entire painting. 

By the same token, you have to be willing to follow what appears to be a mistake, the "Whoops." To give you a clearer picture of what happens in my paintings, I'm an abstract artist. When I start a painting, I usually don't have a clue what's going to happen. I'm listening to music and interpreting that music onto the canvas. Sometimes the painting will be complete in a couple of hours, other times it takes months and layers and layers of paint are applied until the image emerges. As in writing when the characters begin creating the story line, a painting actually unfolds itself. It's the artist's job to learn to listen to it.

The "Whoops" can be the wrong color finding its way onto the canvas, or it can happen when you wipe some of the paint off, or it may occur when what seems like the wrong brush stroke is made. My first "Whoops" happened when I was applying very thin shades of alizarin (burgundies) and blues. The canvas had a fantastic looking texture to it. Then I came back with a turpentine-laden brush and jammed it into the painting. That caused the paint to run, probably more than I wanted it to. 

Having already spent a week or more on the painting, now I felt some frustration that it needed to be "fixed." Thank goodness I remembered what all of my instructors had tried to teach me - "you have to be willing to follow the mistake." Now I understood what they were saying. My usual approach to dealing with mistakes or problems was to quickly fix it with the intention of returning everything to normal. In this case, I stopped. I didn't try to fix the painting. Rather, I spent time viewing it, eventually seeing a different painting emerge than the one anticipated.

If you've ever watched an artist, particularly an abstract artist, you've notice they apply a little paint sometimes only a brushstroke, then step back and ponder it. Some artists spend more time pondering than painting. It's really difficult to explain what happens during that period but it's as if the painting is talking to you, trying to explain what it wants to become.

Follow the "Whoops" in Your Business

In business both of these dynamics - trying to preserve something that seems so perfect and the feeling that there's something wrong with making a mistake - are occurring. In trying to preserve what is perceived as perfection, people work very hard to maintain status quo. There's no opportunity for growth in that environment. Creativity is dead - for it cannot be born in an environment of fear. And fear is the motivating factor for maintaining status quo. It's fear of the unknown and that is where "Whoops" becomes the savior.

"Whoops" is more than a minor error. It is usually significant enough to shake us up. I'll give you an example. I founded an executive suite business, Front Office Business Centers, in Houston, Texas in 1986. That business has become very successful. In 1997, a fellow member in a marketing alliance took over the management of an executive suite in Houston. This wasn't his market and under terms of the alliance agreement, he offered management to Front Office.

Though we had no part in negotiating the contract with the building owner, we went ahead and became partners in the management of the suite. To get the most marketing bang for the buck, we put the Front Office name on the suite and worked very hard to bring it's quality of service inline with our other four locations. We did this in spite of several concerns, such as location, the phone system, the current rental rate tenants were paying, and the major concern of not being able to call our own shots. 

In spite of our concerns we forged ahead. After two years of ups and downs, the building owner whom we had virtually no contact with, decided to take back the operation of the suite. We were disappointed about this turn of events, not because we thought the suite was a real moneymaker but because our ego was bruised. Front Office is the premiere executive suite in Houston and we felt as if we failed. Our "Whoops" - we should have listened to our intuition and not invested the time and energy in this location. 

The goal of "Whoops" is to help us look at things differently. The great savior of "Whoops" is lost if we're so embarrassed and ashamed by it that we work very quickly to negate it, hoping no one noticed. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Consider...if you took that approach when you were learning to walk, you'd still be crawling.

Consider what we learned from managing that other suite. From that "Whoops" experience, we now have a firm pact that additional locations will belong to us. We also discovered the value of listening to our very sound judgment or intuition and will not repeat that "Whoops" again. It's been about a year and looking back I'm amazed at how well our other locations are doing with clear and focused energy, not diminished by constant questioning if that fifth location was really the right one.

"Whoops" Opens the Door to Infinite Possibilities

Experiencing "Whoops" is really a crucial aspect of your development. It opens the door to infinite possibilities in areas where you believed they were firmly closed. There's an important dynamic around having "Whoops" work for you - you must be able to acknowledge it. Once acknowledged, it's imperative that you step back and view the mistake from a broader perspective. When you do that, you're able to detach from it and to become more objective.

The most important thing I learned about "Whoops" as an artist is - you have to have the courage to follow the mistake. The same thing is true in your business. The mistake can be a strong catalyst for viewing your business's current position in a whole new light. Out of that "Whoops" may come the decision that spurs dynamic growth.

There's another important element in working with "Whoops". Your employees observe that you're not vested in being right and that you're able to approach, what some would perceive as a negative, with flexibility in a positive light. In this age of rapid technological advances, flexibility is an absolute prerequisite for success.

Once you've discovered the message in "Whoops", you create a strategy to implement the information gleaned and to chart a new course. Here's where faith comes in. Faith is your ability to trust in yourself, your associates, and in a higher power. Now, you begin again.

As you learn to appreciate "Whoops" as a catalyst for change and growth, you'll find yourself actually looking for it, knowing when it occurs you become the beneficiary.


Using Natural Laws to Create

1. Set your intention toward achieving a goal. 
2. Chart the course you believe is necessary to attain it. (Visualization should be an important aspect of this step.)
3. Gather the tools and techniques
4. Strike out on the path you've outlined.
5. "Whoops" happens. 
6. Step back and view "Whoops" from a more objective viewpoint.
7. Discover the message in "Whoops".
8. Review your initial goal in light of this new information.
9. Reestablish or revise the goal.
10. Begin again.

Copyright 2001 by Aleta Pippin, founder Authentic Entrepreneur.  Visit http://www.aentrepreneur.com if you're ready to create the life of your dreams.  Sign up for a free E-Zine and Weekly Focus.

Also by Aleta Pippin on AspireNow:

"5 Secrets of the Authentic Entrepreneur"

"Be Authentic In The Midst of all the Voices"

See other articles in Business Aspiration

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