5 Reasons to Celebrate Career Mistakes

As a career coach, I spend a lot of time helping people with their “mistakes.”

There are so many people who feel they have made a professional mistake, or have been handed obstacles and problems that simply can’t be surmounted on what should be a straight and simple path to success. Somewhere along the way, many of us are taught that a good career is linear: choose the right major, get the right job, work hard, move up, and everything will fall into place.

Realistically, that’s not how careers work.

There are lots of things that get in the way of that straight path to career bliss. Many people experience detours, speed bumps, rocky climbs, or even “long periods in the desert,” as one of my clients once described it. Industries and markets are changing at break-neck speed, and words like off-shoring, down-sizing, and redundancy have become everyday language in corporate environments.

At the same time, we’re dealing with our own changing lives and priorities—relationships, health, family needs, aging parents, financial realities, and the very human desire for meaning and satisfaction. As individuals, we’re observing these external shifts while also feeling internal ones, and we’re often required to adapt, adjust, and redefine both success and the tactics we use to pursue it.

All of this leads to change.
And change almost always includes mistakes.

With that in mind, and knowing that every single one of us encounters mistakes along the way, I wanted to share five reasons to celebrate them.

1. Mistakes Get Our Attention

Mistakes wake us up.

They interrupt autopilot and give us a clear starting point for change. When something isn’t working, we finally notice it. Without mistakes, many of us would stay stuck far longer than necessary, tolerating situations that don’t fit or fulfill us.

Mistakes are often the first honest signal that it’s time to look closer.

2. Allowing Mistakes Gives Us Permission to Take Risks

If mistakes aren’t allowed, risk-taking disappears.

Permitting mistakes creates space for experimentation, growth, and courage. It allows us to try new roles, new industries, new ways of working, or new definitions of success—without needing a guarantee before we begin.

Careers that truly fit are rarely built without risk.

3. Noticing Mistakes Shows a Commitment to Quality

When you notice a mistake, it means you care.

It reflects a commitment to quality—not just in your work, but in your life. People who are checked out don’t notice misalignment. People who are engaged do.

Mistakes signal that you are paying attention and that you want your work and your life to actually work for you.

4. Mistakes Give Us a Place to Practice

Mistakes create practice opportunities.

They invite us to pause, reflect, and look at our choices through the lens of our values. What mattered to you then? What matters to you now? What did this experience clarify or rule out?

Every mistake sharpens awareness and strengthens decision-making—if you’re willing to look at it honestly.

5. Mistakes Are Powerful Teachers

Mistakes are some of our best teachers.

They give us the opportunity to:

• Renew our values
• Learn new values
• Adopt new behaviors
• Let go of old assumptions

Often, the lessons we carry forward with the most clarity and conviction come from situations that didn’t go as planned.

A New Way to Look at Career Mistakes

If you’re willing to reframe them, mistakes aren’t proof that you failed; they’re evidence that you’re living, learning, and participating in your own life and career.

They’re part of the process, not a detour from it.

As the quote goes:

“Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times,
develop from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.”
—Unknown

Sometimes the career you’re meant to have only becomes clear after the mistake—not before.