Success in Business is often due to the Mistakes of others

In business, success is often due to the mistakes of others.
Describe a specific situation in which success in business might not be due to the mistakes of others. Discuss what you think determines when success in business is the result of the mistakes of others.
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Achieving success in business usually entails determination, skill, and plain luck, among other factors . Success, of course, can signify many things. It may be measured by profits, longetivity, quality of services, extent of social utility, long-term positive impact on a community, etc. Businesses recognized as "successful" exhibit several of these indicators of success--those of which usually go hand in hand. Most importantly, however, businesses achieve success as a result of the mistakes of others. These are the past mistakes and lessons learned by the businesses' leaders and trial and error that have led to "best practices" followed by various industries.

The success of a business often depends on leadership. Leaders determine the culture of a company, plan the business trajectory, and make key decisions under pressure. Employees, of course, are also integral to success but leaders ultimately determine what direction the company takes. Indeed, people are not born as effective leaders---they cultivate their ability to lead through life experiences, education, and mistakes. Through experiences working for other businesses, leaders adapt their current practices based on what has worked and has not worked in the past. They learn from the mistakes of their superiors and strive to apply lessons in their own businesses. Many take risks that could either adversely affect the company or result in extremely high profits. It is only through experience and mistakes that these leaders are able to gauge what type of risks are in the best interest of the company.

Most industries, furthermore, have developed "best practices"--or proper processes that businesses follow to achieve desired outcomes. These "best practices" were not established overnight but rather through time. The standard processes resulted from the trial and error of several companies in various stages of their lifetimes. Indeed, many companies in the past that have contributed to the knowledge of "best practices" have not survived due to their mistakes. Current businesses, however, can profit from the accumulated knowledge of an industry and its lessons from the past.

Some businesses, however, have experienced success merely from pure luck--that is, they came into auspicious circumstances by being at the right place and at the right time. They did not necessarily gain success due to the mistakes of others. This can be exemplified by the substantial profits realized by dot com companies in the early 2000s. For example, many were able to make an initial public offering of its stock and raise a lot of money even though they have never made a profit. Granted, most of these companies dissolved as quickly as they had gained success. But a few businessmen were able to cash out and secure their profits before the bubble burst. While pure luck in certain circumstances resulted in windfalls, history and experience shows that a company's long term success hinges on more substantive factors, such as leadership abilities and business acumen--both of which are developed through the mistakes of others.