How to Admit to Yourself You Made a Mistake

For the better part of a decade, I was a firm believer against the so called "Crackberry" smart phones… the one that ultimately inspired a bunch of competitors including the iPhone.

Let me explain why.

It goes back to the year 2000. I was employee 34 at a company called LivePerson.com the pioneer in using live chat software to help close more big ticket sales on websites.

It was an absolutely crazy year. We grew from 34 employees to over 100 in 9 months. Sales were up 600% that year. We moved office buildings – twice. And we went public.

I played several different roles include heading up product development and was chief information officer for a brief period of time as well.

It was the same year the Blackberry came out (or at least became widely used). The entire senior management team had one, including my boss who was the CEO and founder of the company.

He would use his Crackberry to email us stuff to do while waiting in line at McDonalds and somewhat ingloriously while sitting on the "can" taking care of business.

I would get emails at midnight expecting me to move heaven and earth by 8am the next day.

I can't complain too much. I did end up becoming a dot com millionaire out that experience… of course, I soon became a "former" dot com millionaire shortly thereafter (thank you dot com bust.)

But for the past 9 years, I've had this allergic reaction to the Blackberry because of this intense period in my life.

A few months ago, my regular mobile phone dived. I needed to upgrade regardless and finally caved and got a Blackberry.

After years of being on the road from 20 – 50 weeks per year as an employee, when I started my current business I designed it so I could work from home a lot of the time to spend time with my kids.

So my schedule isn't the normal 9 to 5 schedule, but as a blend of personal and business activities depending on the day.

Some days I don't work at all. Other days, I'll do things with the kids until 5pm and start an abbreviated day in the evening.

In a week or two, I'll be coaching my oldest daughter's soccer team even though the last time I played was around 30 years ago. (Reminder to self: Google how many players on the field at one time).

And as I'm writing this, from my home office, my youngest daughter just woke up from her nap and came in looking for her post-nap hug. Somethings are priceless…

In this design your business around your lifestyle (rather than the other way around) approach, I've found that having a smart phone is surprisingly useful.

If I'm waiting to pick up my daughter from one of her activities in the middle of the day, I can delegate work to my team, research something on Google, or clear out my email inbox.

The smartphone isn't useful enough for those "big picture" major project type of work.

But it's plenty good enough to handle all those little things so that when I'm at my desk, I'm spending more of my time on the big projects… rather than little ones.

I've also found the mobile calendar feature very handy. So if late on night, I need to quickly confirm my schedule for the next morning, I don't need to boot up my laptop to check it.

So, I've officially changed my mind. I was wrong to be so against such a tool.

In business and in life, it's always worth finding a better way to do things.

And when you're fortunate enough to come across a better way, there's no point in being stubborn about sticking with the old way. Better to admit the old way was a mistake, and embrace the change.