My Favorite Mistake: Business Lessons from Failures and Success – Details, episodes & analysis

My guest for Episode #287 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Steven L. Blue, the CEO of Miller Ingenuity, a global manufacturer and supplier of railroad parts and high-technology rail safety systems and services.

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He’s a recognized expert in business transformation. With 50 years of experience leading companies across diverse industries like manufacturing and publishing, Steve has a proven track record of turning businesses around and driving massive profit increases.

A best-selling author and regular media personality, Steve is also a sought-after keynote speaker who has spoken at prestigious venues like Harvard Business School, The United Nations, and Carnegie Hall. His leadership insights have been featured in major outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Forbes, and CNBC.

In this episode, we dive into the pivotal lessons learned from mistakes, exploring how past successes can plant the seeds for future missteps. Steve shares his story of a bold but ultimately flawed business venture in Cuba, unpacking how ego and faulty assumptions led to failure—and valuable insights.

We discuss the importance of testing assumptions, inviting challenges from peers and boards, and fostering a culture that learns from, rather than fears, mistakes. Steve also highlights the transformation of Miller Ingenuity, offering wisdom on leadership, rebranding, and building a culture of continuous improvement that empowers employees to innovate and adapt.

This conversation is rich with reflections on the intersection of humility, risk-taking, and the resilience required to navigate today’s business landscape.

• What is your favorite mistake, and what did you learn from it?
• What was the event at Carnegie Hall where you spoke?
• How did you approach navigating the challenges of broadcasting from Cuba?
• Why do you think there was low interest in the U.S. for the Cuba broadcast?
• What lessons did you take away about making assumptions in business?
• How do you accurately forecast interest in new ventures?
• What role does ego play in decision-making, and how can it lead to mistakes?
• Why is failure an important part of learning and eventual success?
• How do you test assumptions before making significant investments?
• What’s the role of a board of directors in challenging and validating assumptions?
• How do you navigate resistance to new ideas within your team or board?
• What was the process behind rebranding Miller Ingenuity?
• How did you ensure the rebrand was successful and aligned with your business goals?
• What role does culture play in Lean manufacturing at Miller Ingenuity?
• How do you foster an environment where employees feel safe admitting mistakes?
• What’s your approach to hiring and ensuring cultural fit within your teams?
• How do you balance empowering teams with stepping in during a crisis?
• What leadership attitudes are most likely to lead to business disasters?
• What steps do you take to prevent and respond to unforeseen disasters?
• What advice would you give to other leaders about sustaining a culture of continuous improvement?

My guest for Episode #286 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Nancy Ho, a distinguished Life Strategist, Clarity Messenger, and State of Mind Specialist with over 26 years of experience guiding individuals toward holistic success. 

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Throughout her illustrious career, Nancy has empowered over 10,000 clients, including C-Suite executives, mid-level managers, and business owners, to navigate the intricate balance between professional achievement and personal fulfillment.  

She’s co-author of the book Success Redefined with Jack Canfield.

In today's episode, Nancy shares the story of her favorite mistake—losing $300,000 in just five months pursuing a lifelong dream of opening a wine bar. She reflects on the critical lessons she learned about the importance of due diligence, trusting gut instincts, and recognizing misaligned partnerships. Nancy discusses how this experience shaped her approach to coaching, helping clients uncover their life purpose, navigate the paradox of professional success, and integrate work and personal fulfillment. She offers practical strategies for managing stress, addressing incomplete tasks, and shifting from fear-based thinking to resilience and clarity. Nancy’s insights provide inspiration and actionable advice for anyone striving to align their career, values, and sense of purpose.

• What is your favorite mistake?
• What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during this venture, and how did you handle them?
• What lessons did you learn from this experience, and how do you apply them in your work today?
• Do you have any regrets about walking away from the business?
• What is your life purpose, and how do you help others articulate theirs?
• What do you mean by the “professional paradox,” and how do you help clients facing career and life challenges?
• How do you approach unraveling the root causes of professional struggles for your clients?
• What strategies do you recommend for managing stress caused by incomplete tasks?
• How do you help clients shift from fear of failure to a mindset of resilience and growth?
• How has this mistake influenced your approach to life and business coaching?

My guest for Episode #281 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Dr. Edward Feinberg, a distinguished expert in restorative dentistry who has dedicated over 40 years to advancing dental care. Dr. Feinberg graduated from Tufts University, was trained by his father, Dr. Elliot Feinberg, a pioneer in full coverage restorative dentistry, and practiced in Scarsdale, New York, before moving to Arizona, where he now practices.

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He is the Director of ONWARD, an online teaching organization for full coverage restorative dentistry, where he has created over 30 courses and provides a wealth of educational resources.

A nationally recognized lecturer and author, Dr. Feinberg has contributed significantly to dental literature, including his essay collection, "Open Wide: Essays on Challenges in Dentistry to Achieve Excellence." He also serves on editorial boards and councils for various dental associations and has been honored with numerous awards for his contributions to the field.

In this episode, Ed shares insights from over 40 years in the field and discusses his unique approach to saving teeth, which contrasts with the widespread practice of extracting teeth and opting for implants. Dr. Feinberg’s "favorite mistake" involved a crown falling off a colleague’s tooth—a rare but impactful error. Through this experience, he reinforced his belief in trial-based dentistry and using precise techniques to ensure long-lasting dental solutions.

Dr. Feinberg advocates for saving teeth first, using crowns and bridges when appropriate, and stresses that implants should only be used when absolutely necessary. The conversation also touches on the overuse of implants in modern dentistry, the importance of prevention, and learning from mistakes to improve patient care.

• What would you say is your favorite mistake?
• Was that the first time a crown had fallen off, or was it just a rare occurrence?
• Were you able to implement any checks or mistake-proofing to prevent this from happening again?
• Can you explain the difference between focusing on the tooth structure above the gum versus below the gum?
• How do you use temporary crowns, and why do some fall out while others don’t?
• Do you believe dental education is keeping up with advancements in restorative techniques?
• What are your thoughts on the current trends in implant dentistry?
• Do you think a lot of dentists are making mistakes with implants, and why?
• Are there preventive or mistake-proofing methods you apply in your practice to avoid common dental issues?
• Why do you think patients typically don’t seek second opinions in dentistry, unlike in medicine?
• Does the overuse of implants lead to malpractice cases or trouble with insurance?
• Why are patients quick to judge dentists based on superficial factors rather than their actual dental work?
• What are your thoughts on veneers—are they purely cosmetic, and when are they appropriate?
• How can dentists better manage biomechanical stress when performing implant procedures?
• Are there concerns about the future reputation of dentistry due to inappropriate practices?
• What advice would you give to patients about prevention and the importance of regular dental hygiene visits?

• Dr. Feinberg’s favorite mistake: A crown falling off a colleague’s tooth and the lessons he learned about precision and correcting errors.
• Restorative dentistry techniques: Focusing on the root structure below the gum for crown and bridgework to ensure long-lasting results.
• The overuse of implants: Dr. Feinberg discusses the inappropriate use of implants and his preference for saving teeth when possible.
• Dental education: Concerns that dental schools are not teaching the best restorative methods and the influence of economic pressures on young dentists.
• Precision attachments: A less common, effective alternative to implants that can save teeth, especially for complex cases.
• Patient care and trust: How patients often judge dentists on superficial factors and the importance of second opinions in dental treatment.
• Preventive care: The importance of regular hygiene visits to prevent periodontal bone loss, which is crucial for long-term dental health.

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My guest for Episode #200 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is… me, Mark Graban. It's hard to believe that the podcast has reached 200 episodes. If you forgive me for the other episode (#16) where I talked about my own mistakes, that's 198 guests who have shared compelling “favorite mistake” stories with me.

Enter to win a My Favorite Mistake coffee mug!

In this episode, I'm joined by my guest host, Tom Ehrenfeld. He's the editor who is working with me on my upcoming book, The Mistakes That Make Us. He's also the host of the WLEI podcast from the Lean Enterprise Institute. Tom asks me about my reflections and lessons learned from hosting this podcast, including some of the mistakes I've made as a host and producer. We also discuss themes from my upcoming book about creating a culture of learning from mistakes.

• Healthcare Kaizen book
• KaiNexus
• Donnis Todd and Dan Garrison episode
• David Mayer episode
• Mark's podcast mistakes:Didn’t always properly prep guests – especially through a 3rd party PR An experiment that didn’t pan out — recording via a web-based service Naming mistake – My Favorite Mistake vs. Our Favorite Mistakes? Almost lost some recordings (Ep. 16)

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

CEO at Build a Vibrant Culture™

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** Mark's Upcoming Book: The Mistakes That Make Us **

My guest for Episode #199 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Nicole Greer. She is a principal coach and CEO of Build a Vibrant Culture™, who specializes in helping individuals, corporations, faith-based organizations, and non-profits fulfill their mission and exemplify VIBRANT Leadership™.

For the last 20+ years Nicole has worked as a coach, marketing director, master of first impressions, and sales trainer in the many facets of business. Her experiences working with all kinds of people led her to found Vibrant Coaching. Nicole is a speaker, trainer, facilitator, life and business coach.

In this episode, Nicole tells her favorite mistake story about giving herself away and not realizing her value when she was in a property management job. Why did she agree to do what seemed like a second full-time job for free? How did Nicole realize this was a mistake? What did she learn and how did she adjust? What was “the big mistake” within the mistake story?

We also talk about change management, showing grace, and keeping employees vibrant through coaching them as leaders (which goes beyond reacting constructively to mistakes).

• “Master of first impressions”?
• How do you decide the value that you bring? What you’re getting paid?
• What does “vibrant” in terms of personality?
• How do you define “VIBRANT Leadership”?
• “Get LIT” Lead from within, Integrity, Transformation
• Nicole's LinkedIn article… “The Love Habit”
• What does “showing others grace” mean to you?
• C3: Circumstances Conduct and Consequences
• How have you coached leaders who struggle with how to react to mistakes?
• Book: The One Minute Manager
• Book: How Full is Your Bucket?

My guest for Episode #198 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kevin Goldsmith, the chief technology officer at DistroKid, the world’s largest distributor of digital music.

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Kevin is an experienced leader of high-profile, high-performing product, research, and shared technology engineering organizations. An often-invited speaker on building strong engineering teams at conferences internationally – often talking about learning from failure. Has extensive experience building products using Lean, Kanban, Scrum, and Extreme Programming methodologies.

In this episode, Kevin tells his favorite mistake story about the launch of “Spotify Now” when he was an engineering leader at Spotify. Why was there pressure to launch? What mistake did Kevin and team make regarding data from a small group of initial users? How did Spotify leverage its culture of “handling failure well”? What did Kevin learn?

• How do you balance the cost of lost customers vs. the cost of embarrassment?
• Being surprised by the results of experiments
• Was Spotify Now a problem of a bad concept or bad execution? Or Bad design?
• Losing customers as “the cost of learning”
• Organizational learning to not get into this situation again?
• Doing retrospectives on EVERYTHING to remove the stigma?
• The Forbes article that Kevin was quoted in
• People who strongly believe in “accountability” — punishing failures — can you change their minds?
• Failure vs. mistake? — how would you compare those words?
• Tell us a little bit more about DistroKid – strengthening this culture of learning from mistakes?

• Fail Fast, Fail Smart… Succeed! by Kevin Goldsmith
• Blog post version of the story at Spotify

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Host of the "I Have ADHD" podcast

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My guest for Episode #197 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kristen Carder. She is a serial entrepreneur and mindset coach for adults with ADHD. She's the host of a podcast: “I Have ADHD.”

In this episode, Kristen tells her favorite mistake story about spending $10,000 on a “mastermind” group that was not at all what she expected. Why was there a gap between her expectations and reality? When did she realize there was a problem? What did she do and how did she learn from this, as a coach-ee and a coach? We also talk about mistakes related to understanding ADHD and living with it — at work and in our personal lives.

As she always says on her podcast, she's “medicated, caffeinated, and ready to roll.”

• When did you realize it was a mistake? Did you ask for a refund? 3 reasons why not…
• When should somebody join a “mastermind” instead of getting 1×1 coaching?
• Lesson learned: explicitly lays out WHAT a mastermind is when she sells one
• Red flags that you’re getting bad info about ADHD?
• Why ADHD is not simply a “gift” or a “superpower”?
• How do you define ADHD?
• The inability to direct attention
• Trouble regulating impulse – attention and emotion?
• You were diagnosed in college… I was diagnosed last year at age 48… what led to you getting diagnosed?
• Causes? Differences in the brain?
• A mistake to tell people at work that you’re ADHD?
• Explanation not an excuse
• Her FOCUSED coaching program

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.

Kevin Harrington, from "Shark Tank" and creator of the infomercial.

Welcome to My Favorite Mistake. I’m Mark Graban. This is “just the mistake” — a new experiment.

Today we’ll hear the “favorite mistake” story shared, in episode #1, by Kevin Harrington — one of the “sharks” on season 1 of the show “Shark Tank.” He was the creator of the modern 30-minute infomercial and he shared a powerful story from 30 years ago.

To hear the entire episode with Kevin and his co-author Mark Timm, go to www.MarkGraban.com/mistake1

CEO of Props -- ⁠Episode page with video, transcript, links and more⁠

My guest for Episode #196 of the ⁠My Favorite Mistake⁠ podcast is Joe Perello, president and CEO of Props, a first-of-its-kind, marketing technology platform enabling DTC brands. Joe is also a member of the board of directors of New York Cruise Lines.

Prior to Props, he co-founded and led an NYC-based digital agency and bootstrapped it into an award-winning shop.

In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Joe as the first Chief Marketing Officer of the City of New York. Joe and his team created the first self-funded marketing and promotional engine in the City's history, generating more than $100 million and paving the way for unprecedented results in tourism.

Joe was the Vice President of Business Development for the New York Yankees during some of their most successful seasons, reporting to the late George M. Steinbrenner.

In this episode, Joe tells his favorite mistake story about a “work divorce” that was “really hard” — was it a mistake to separate himself from a company and certain workplace relationships? How did he learn to take responsibility for those relationships? We also discuss how to create a culture of learning from mistakes and creating an environment where you can be wrong.

Questions and Topics:

• Work divorces are hard… it WAS the right thing to do
• Felt like it WAS a mistake as it happened – turned out to be best…
• Fear — no idea what I was going to do next…. — uncertainty or a mistake
• It’s always a judgment call – a mistake or not??
• The founder dynamic made it more difficult – personal pride
• Lessons learned to prevent future work divorces??
• Culture of learning from mistakes? “Create an environment where you can be wrong…”
• Getting things wrong helps us get it right??
• “I don’t want to be right I just want to win”
• Direct marketing – test and learn, test and learn
• Fail fast, fail often?
• Props – how did the company pivot??
• Mistakes that marketers make? Being inauthentic or failed attempt at authenticity that didn’t ring true?
• Mistaken perceptions of the late George Steinbrenner… public perception vs reality?

Please ⁠follow⁠, rate, and review via ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ or ⁠Podchaser⁠ or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also ⁠become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm⁠.

You can now ⁠sign up to get new episodes via email⁠, to make sure you don't miss an episode.

This podcast is part of the ⁠Lean Communicators network⁠.

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I WANT TO WRITE MY BOOK (ad)

My guest for Episode #195 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Ward Vuillemot. Ward is a seasoned C-suite executive with over six years of experience leading fully remote teams while building technology organizations from the ground up for companies with 150 to 650 employees in size and $50M to $125M in revenue across the Americas and Europe.

He is currently Chief Product Officer and CTO at RealSelf. He is a technical advisor with his own company, where he advises startup founders and CEOs on technical roadmap and technology organization along with lean approaches to finding market signals quickly.

I invited Ward because of this Forbes article about celebrating errors.

In this episode, Ward tells his favorite mistake story about launching “Amazon Tote” and why there was “too little friction” in user experience. What did he learn about understanding the customer experience? In a separate story, what was Ward's epiphany about seeing an ant on a bus?

• Innovation is doing something others haven’t done before
• Tell us about the Celebration of Error (CoE) concept – and practice…
• Chicken and egg between psychological safety and CoE?
• How much Psychological Safety is necessary and how does CoE build more PS?
• From Correction of Error (Amazon) to Celebration of Error?
• Are all errors created equally in terms of what to celebrate?
• Discovering mistakes that had been there for years
• As a person who is “high-functioning autistic” – is it ever a mistake to disclose something that personal?
• From mindset to document?

1. IMPACT of the error on business – send to whole company?… why it matters, not why it happened
2. RESOLUTIONS — short-term and long-term (countermeasures) – fire out, then prevention
3. ROOT CAUSE – “show your work”

• When to use a CoE?
• People “NEED” to make mistakes to hit ever-greater goals?
• Taking an impersonal, non-blaming approach — easier said than done? Fighting the instinct to blame?

Please follow, rate, and review via Apple Podcasts or Podchaser or your favorite app — that helps others find this content and you'll be sure to get future episodes as they are released weekly. You can also become a financial supporter of the show through Anchor.fm.

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This podcast is part of the Lean Communicators network.