We all hate making mistakes, and yet we all make them. It’s part of being human. How we react to our mistakes varies widely, yet many of us beat ourselves up for not being perfect.

Part of the problem is that our society and our culture teach us to strive for perfection, and not to be independent, courageous, creative and visionary. Being visionary inevitably means that we will make mistakes and fall short of the standard of perfection.

Flipping the switch from hesitancy to bold creativity can be as simple as accepting that we will make mistakes and to see those mistakes as wonderful opportunities to learn and get it more right the next time. Little mistakes give us the opportunity to learn little lessons, big mistakes – big lessons.

“Hold on a minute” you might be saying. “I can accept making little mistakes and learning from them, but no one wants to make really big mistakes.” No indeed, yet bold innovation comes from being willing to start new businesses that are truly unique in their model, launch new endeavors, create new things, leave a career of many years because we are no longer fulfilled and venture into the unknown, write a book, launch a blog, learn a language, and so on.

Being willing to make really big mistakes might just lead us to the next cultural innovation, business model, new musical style or just doing what we truly love. As the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”