Andrew Skotzko

Learning

On always being wrong

I learned a new phrase from the one and only Seth that has lit my mind on fire and freed up my creativity: “Always be wrong.” (Expect this and much more in his highly anticipated new book, “This is Marketing,” which comes out next week.)

WHAT? Be…wrong? Are you kidding me?

That was my first reaction, anyway.

But here’s the deal, and it’s actually very freeing:

The idea is to be wrong all the time. To ship generously, and get it wrong. But to be getting it wrong from a posture of generosity and service. Coming from a posture of trying to serve. Showing up for people, for customers, with right heart and right intention to serve.

And then, take notes.

Take notes about where you’re wrong, learn the lesson, make it better, ship again.

We’ve given “wrong” a bad name. I don’t know about you, but I’ve grappled with this for a long time. We’ve all been trained that there is a right answer and that we have to have that answer. Looking for The One Answer to Rule Them All, when there are Many Possible Great Answers.

This often manifests as over-preparing, studying too much in advance, trying to reverse engineer it all up front.

Turns out, it’s much more efficient, faster, and simpler to make a generous attempt, be wrong, learn, and repeat. As long as it’s done with the right intention, it builds connection and trust with customers, with those I seek to serve.

But there is a simple fix: take the sting out of “wrong.” Make “wrong” a friend.

How? Two steps:

Step one: Give yourself permission to ‘always be wrong.’ If you do, and the market does, this is permission to get it wrong. Permission to stop endlessly preparing and trying to get it perfect from the jump. Freedom from trying to reverse engineer everything in advance and solve it all before you leap.

Step two: Pair ‘always be wrong’ with ‘always be learning.’ This is about cultivating a growth mindset (for more on how to do this, see Lesson 2 in my altMBA recap).

If you’re just wrong, but getting better and trying again, you’ll burn out. And that doesn’t serve you or those you seek to serve.

This isn’t permission to ship crap. Give it your best attempt. But it is permission to be imperfect and go anyway.

“Wrong” is the doorway to better, and what opens that door is saying “thank you.”

“Wrong” is the only place I get to be a learner and get better and grow.

“Wrong” is a wonderful place to visit. Just don’t stay there.

How to Unlock Foreign Languages: 11 Principles

Heads up: This a long, detailed post (~6,400 words) so you might want to read it somewhere comfy. You can get the gist by skimming the headings and sequence lists, and then diving into the specific sections as you see fit. Be sure to check out the FAQ and resource links/downloads at the end. Skim time: 5 minutes. Full read time: 32 minutes.

From November until March I worked remotely and traveled in South America. Working remotely and exploring the world is something I’ve wanted to do ever since I first learned the term “location independent” as a college sophomore. But until this trip, I’d never done it. So with no lead time, in early November I booked a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires.

Just one problem: I didn’t speak Spanish. I took Spanish in high school, but I couldn’t remember anything useful. And I’m not sure I could apply it in conversation even if I could remember it.

Onboard the redeye flight from Miami to Buenos Aires, my lack of Spanish was immediately clear. I sat next to an Argentine man who turned to me and started speaking. Even though he spoke simply, I could not understand him. It had already been an eighteen hour day, and my best intentions failed within ten seconds. Flush with embarrassment, I admitted defeat: “no hablo español.”

Fast-forward six weeks to arrive at one of the proudest moments of the trip: I sitting in a dark little cerveceria named Konna in Bariloche, in Northern Patagonia, drinking beer surrounded by native Spanish speakers. And having real conversations in Spanish. Conversations that went beyond what foods I had eaten, what I thought of the town, and where I was traveling from and to. A real conversation amongst friends in a bar, for 2 hours.

This was what I’d been working my ass off for. The crowning point of the night when one of the women at the table, my lovely Spanish teacher Mariela, said that my progress amazed her. After a comment about my love of mate, steak, and naps, she declared that I was Argentino Argentino. I beamed like a kid with his first trophy.

I wasn’t fluent and my Spanish wasn’t perfect, but that wasn’t the point: I was having a blast, actually speaking real Spanish with real Spanish speakers in a real conversation. That is the point: the cultural experience and growth.

So how did a gringo like me go from “no hablo” to “Argentino Argentino”? That’s what this post is all about

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