The second part of Yogi’s quote, “You can observe a lot just by watching,” is “We made too many wrong mistakes.” My guess is that the context for this quote was Yogi’s commentary on a game the Yankees lost because they weren’t paying attention to the game’s progress, causing them to take risks - or make the “wrong mistakes” - that cost them the game. Placed into the context of today’s business world, the idea of making the “wrong mistakes” holds a good lesson, namely, that we can make “right mistakes.” In fact, a good friend and mentor, Colleen Abdoulah, President and CEO of Wide Open West, rewards members of her team for making mistakes. The reason is simple: if we aren’t making mistakes, we can’t possibly be learning. The key is to make the “right mistakes” and to learn from them.

So what’s a “right mistake”? I think the key lies in the motivation behind the mistake. If the motivation is risk-taking for the purpose of improving the business and driving results, but the execution is flawed or the environmental factors limit the success of the risk, then the mistake is one we can learn from. On the flip side, Yogi may have described “wrong mistakes” as those that stem from lack of observation or, worse, from motivation that is self-serving or unethical.

Right or wrong, never make the same mistake twice. Otherwise, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”