How many "mistakes" happen in your life, in business and on projects, and how do you react to them?  Some mistakes may intentionally be cultivated to find different and better ways to do something and others can be catastrophic failures that must be corrected. However most mistakes are probably minor, and given a different perspective that is not based on a first reaction, could end up being beneficial in some way.  I recently learned this for myself.

I enjoy baking, so last week I decided to make brownies for my UCD students and Vistage members. It was already 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, so to save time I opted to use a pre-made mix instead of my preferred method of baking from scratch. 

There was a recipe to double the batch, which was perfect since I was baking for two groups. When I mixed the ingredients and poured the mixture into the pan, I noticed that the mixture was too "wet."   I looked at the recipe again and realized that I had accidentally doubled the water and the oil from the already doubled ingredients.  Upset and tired, my first reaction was to dump the mixture in the garbage and go without brownies.

Because I didn't have enough ingredients to start over or fix my mistake and the oven was already pre-heated, I suddenly thought, "I can bake my mistake and see what happens - the brownies might turn out; I have nothing to lose by trying; after all, someone invented bread this way."

To my delight, the brownies turned out so well that I received more compliments than I ever have. My lesson learned: "bake your mistakes; they might turn out."