Can We Avoid Making Mistakes?

If someone asked me if there is any living human being without error, I would answer negatively. I would instead claim that no human of blood and flesh is perfect in their life. Most people like to live happily without suffering, but mistake-making often leads them to suffer. It seems as if every human is born with the potential trait to make mistakes in their decisions and actions. Not once or twice in a great while, but any moment, so to speak. Major or minor, a human error would lead to trouble. While a major mistake would lead to a great tragedy, a minor one would also result in suffering, no matter how intense.

The hitherto-existing human experience indicates that we all tend to make mistakes. We do not know what impels us to make mistakes – fate or choice, whether we are predestined to make mistakes or choose to make them ourselves. Fate or choice, the suffering caused by mistake is an unavoidable human predicament. In an ancient Greek play written by Sophocles, Oedipus the King happened to kill his father and marry his mother without his knowing. But that heinous crime of parricide led to the suffering of the entire kingdom and eventually himself. We cannot say by any means this was his choice. If this was the tragedy of fate, it was due to an external force that ruled that those things were to happen.

Human frailty

But in the case of the Mahabharata, Duryodhana made a mistake in his choice, which led to the ruin of the whole Kurubansha and himself towards the end. His unforgivable mistake was, as anybody who has read the Mahabharata knows well, to remove the Pandavas from their kingdom by hook or by crook. In this tragedy, no extrinsic force but the intrinsic trait of a human was the decisive factor. The inherent desire for illimitable wealth, power, and comfort is a deep-seated human frailty. After Sophocles, Aristotle wrote Poetics to analyse the nature of tragedy caused by human error of judgment. As he explains, the tragic hero is often a better-than-average man who does many noble things, but at some point in life, he makes an error of judgment. 

This theory applies to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who became a tragic hero due to his delayed decision, and Othello due to his hasty action. There are countless examples of such kinds, where almost every human being tends to make mistakes in as serious decisions as waging wars or as mundane activities as drinking liquor to get rid of frustration in everyday life. In modern times too, many noble persons make mistakes and suffer severely or at least undergo some setbacks. Those who suffer the most are politicians and businesspersons. Some noble politicians who have made invaluable contributions to the nation and people throughout their life make a mistake at one moment in life, ultimately leading them to utter failure. 

Highly respectable though they are in their ideas and actions, they nonetheless stick to power to become unchallenged dictators, which ultimately leads them to a tragic end. A few of them fall into the temptation of amassing immense wealth unlawfully and are stained by corruption scandals that defame them to the fathomless abyss. Like politicians, businesspersons also suffer due to their mistakes. Since their chief motto is to earn profit and make more money, their mind is always preoccupied with a deep-ingrained desire for immense wealth. This covetous desire haunts their mind with the insatiable hunger for “There must be more money!” This discontent soars up high and high until it reaches the point where it naturally starts to fall down. 

Some other ordinary businesspersons also initiate ambitious business activities without adequate capital and necessary skills, eventually failing in their enterprise. We have oftentimes heard many incidents that tell heart-rending tales about young and promising businesspersons who happen to commit suicide, blaming their fate or other antagonistic forces without revealing their recurrent mistakes of being engaged in only business practices where they have already failed several times. If they alternatively chose the easiest way to earn a livelihood for survival, they would probably not have to become the victim of loss.  

But the situation is not absolutely incorrigible. With conscious efforts, we can cultivate our habit of avoiding some mistakes. Even slight changes in our habits can significantly improve our lives. Acted considerately, we can minimise the mistakes that we tend to make very often. Despite being vulnerable to mistake-making, we can learn not to make mistakes unless unavoidable circumstances overpower us. I suggest two simple ways to minimise them – applying reason to instinct and developing critical thinking habits.

Human emotions

Most common mistakes are made when we cannot control our instinct. The moment we begin to apply reason to instinct, we can step into the first phase of progress. Many mistakes are due to fundamental human emotions such as anger, jealousy, and temptation. We may cross the border of common decency when we are angry. There is a risk of backfire if we feel jealous of others. Temptation is a magnetic trap that lures weak-minded people easily. We may make grave mistakes when we succumb to the temptation of amassing wealth that is not essential for us to live. “There is enough in the world for everyone’s need; there is not enough for everyone’s greed,” as Gandhi would put it, following the principles of the Upanishad.  

The next way to minimise mistakes is to develop critical thinking habits, which help us foresee the consequences of our decisions and actions. Thought critically, we see pros and cons, ups and downs, and back-and-forth conditions before we do something that can have far-reaching consequences. To minimise mistakes, therefore, let us try not to be Hamletian nor Othellian. Our path is always in between – we should try to arrive at the right decision at the right moment in the appropriate context through critical thinking.

(The author is the chairman of Molung Foundation. bhupadhamala@gmail.com)