Forget, Don’t Regret

Our team had a couple of tough meetings last week and coming out of those, I remembered an article I came across last summer that held some simple wisdom; 5 times Ted Lasso reminded us what great leadership looks like, by Fast Company. I often find wisdom from Ted’s advice to his players. Ted once told Sam, a player on his team, that a goldfish was the happiest animal in the world because it had a 10-second memory. He then encouraged Sam to "be a goldfish.” He meant don’t dwell on mistakes but learn from those and move forward.

Many of us are our own harshest critics and when we don’t fully succeed at something, we remember that, rather than the many other successes we have achieved. Failure is not necessarily a negative if we grow from our failures. In software development, by incorporating “failing fast” into our design thinking and workflow, we can almost always adapt and get to success faster.

Failing fast and learning from it also allows us to quickly make changes and go on to build great products. Leaders are those who are eager to learn and continuously build their skill sets. People with these qualities help nurture our culture, innovate our products, and build our portfolio.

As my team knows, I love golf. I recently read that golfer Jon Rahm is also a fan of Ted Lasso and he used this same “be a goldfish” advice last summer with great success when playing in the BMW Championship. It seems to me that any advice like this, that can transcend sports and corporate life, must be worth paying attention to.

If we can move on while not making the same mistakes twice, we can achieve the gold(fish) standard. Our CEO, Satya Nadella, spoke to Digital Market Asia in 2019 about the importance of a “no-regret” system for growth, and this still rings true and reminds us to forget, and not regret. And for anybody who has not yet had the pleasure of experiencing Ted Lasso and his binge-worthy sports wisdom, I would recommend it as a place to inspire you not just for sports, but for your professional journey.

Until next time,

-Manish Mittal