The Quality of the Mistakes

There is no shortcut to genuine learning.

“Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.”

―Frank Herbert

Last week, Joe Callendar posted the following article on his publication, and I asked him if I could re-post it here on The Creator Retreat because it embodies a message we hold dear.

I met Joe this fall when I put out a call to interview Substackers in the research and development stage of The Creator Retreat. I was drawn to Joe’s passion for his craft, and his raw honesty in our exchange. As often happens to me when I meet a kind soul on zoom, I quickly fell in love with Joe’s spirit.

The Creator Retreat🌳 is a place for sensitive souls to come together to support each other in the big messy mistake-making lesson-learning process of figuring out the right ways for yourself.

I hope you enjoy Joe’s message as much as I do.

It Finally Happened!

And it happened right here on Substack

Joe Callender

Dec 19, 2024

It was one of those posts about how quickly someone created a profitable Substack admitted what it really takes to make it….but then glossed right over the most important spot to go deeper.

Mistakes.

You need to make the mistakes. We all know this.

But the quality of your mistakes matter.

Have you thought about the quality of your mistakes? Perhaps, the deeper the mistake, the higher chance for learning.

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When you purchase someone’s program for “How to Achieve X in X Amount of Time!” you are buying their distilled knowledge. You are not buying the learning that occurred. You are only getting what knowledge the writer deemed sellable.

The guru’s lessons are not your unique lessons to learn.

Here’s where the quality of the mistakes you make come in.

If you make a mistake attempting to apply the guru’s platform of knowledge to your unique situation, the mistake is clouded by a set of knowledge that likely has very little to do with your own unique situation and the genuine learning you need to experience.

Trying to apply the knowledge package leads you to try to shoehorn that package into working because you spent good money on it. You need it to work!

But then that distracts you from a lot of other more pertinent context and conditions involving your individual situation. This is usually the context and conditions that will lay waste to even the most guru’d set of knowledge about something. It remains there to be dealt with until one day it can wait no longer and throws a wrench into your entire effort.

You’ll be making the wrong mistakes that lead you to miss so much more pertinent context and conditions that will provide you with genuine learning opportunities.

And then you blame the guru’s plan for what happened. And by then the money-back guarantee will have expired.

There is no shortcut to genuine learning. Learning is not something that comes in a pre-packaged set of information. It is something to be experienced within real-world context and conditions.

You need to make the mistakes on the full set of context and conditions of your own learning endeavor, not on the knowledge distilled from someone else’s experience.

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The Creator Retreat starts March 6, 2025

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🌳 The Creator Retreat: Where Mistakes Become Masterpieces 🌳

The true value of learning lies in embracing mistakes—not avoiding them. At The Creator Retreat, this philosophy comes to life. This isn’t a place for cookie-cutter advice or pre-packaged formulas. It’s a sanctuary for sensitive, creative souls to explore, experiment, and, yes, make mistakes—beautiful, messy, deeply personal mistakes.

Within a supportive community, participants delve into their unique creative processes, learning not from someone else’s blueprint, but from their own experiences. Here, mistakes aren’t failures; they’re opportunities to uncover truths, refine perspectives, and grow authentically.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by advice that doesn’t quite fit, The Creator Retreat offers an alternative: a space to navigate your journey on your terms. Come make the kind of mistakes that lead to your most genuine learning—and your most authentic creations. 🌟