Making a genuine mistake usually gets treated as something to avoid mentioning at all costs. At school, a wrong answer loses marks. At work, a poor decision invites criticism. In business, a bad call can genuinely cost real money. People are usually far more comfortable talking about their successes than admitting they got something wrong. George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, took a genuinely different view of this, particularly within the world of investing. "I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong," he said. "I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes." For Soros, being wrong was never really the dangerous part of the equation. The genuine danger came from refusing to actually recognise it once it had happened, a distinction he returned to repeatedly across his long career in financial markets.
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