How many times have we, as professionals in the communication and marketing fields, sent a finished, wholly proofed top to bottom, printed, produced, distributed, or emailed a piece of collateral only to have the third customer receive it and inform you that you have a misspelling in the first paragraph?
A misspelling in the first paragraph! It’s a shared experience, for sure.
I’ve worked on projects for months only to have a simple, seemingly impossible-to-miss typo stain the final product even though an army of professional word smiths, ad men, CEOs, CFOs, Accountants, and all types of client liaisons read, proofed, and signed-off on the project.
These days, it’s much easier to “edit” a mistake away and republish an email or update a post, but the initial damage is the same: it’s a stain on your image. It’s a failure.
In the communication business, you have to embrace failure and learn to embrace it fast. That’s why I’ve learned to love Baseball so much over the years: it’s 100% about overcoming failure. One lousy swing or bad pitch does not make your career, much like missing an easy typo, but the failure it produces can help you grow through introspection.
For instance, I’ve learned that the best way to avoid a mistake like a simple typo is to read the text aloud. Reading the copy aloud forces you to pay attention to every word and helps turn that efficient part of your brain that wants to summarize everything off.
I know reading the copy aloud is a pain when it’s a lot of text, but that pain is easier to deal with than finding a typo in the first paragraph of the copy of a finished annual report and having to answer that phone call from your client – that’s a real pain.
I’m still working on completing a perfect project.
I know it can always be better. That keeps me striving: having a lifetime batting average well over .300. If you want longevity in the communication business, you must embrace failure and commit to continuous improvement. Cheers!
