Chi non fa non falla

I strived to achieve a lot of things, and I did my fair amount of mistakes.

Want it or not, there is no way to avoid mistakes, or at least to not encounter undesired consequences when doing things. We might say that there is no way to always do the right thing, because in fact there is not 'the right thing'. Everything we do will lead to consequences, some good, some bad. They may also become good or bad, depending on specific aims or points of view.

Should we avoid doing anything, save ourselves from making mistakes and the undesired consequences of our actions? We might decide to do just nothing, but deciding is by its own a sort of action, and like any other action will expose us to more or less favourable consequences.

There are surely actions that bring more adverse consequences and other that have prevailing beneficial ones. We may believe that we have ways to predict and chose the best outcome. In fact, it is simply a matter of probability. When we take an action, including making a choice, we have the same probability to incur into good and bad consequences, because our prediction can be wrong as well.

To do or not to do

We may decide to not act at all, but deciding would be an action itself and would also be susceptible to bring mostly dire consequences. By deciding to not act we would renounce the opportunity of mitigating the adverse effects of our only action, while if we act and keep acting then the overall outcome of our actions would be a balance of good and dire effects.

With this I want to say that even by mere logic, we can see how our best option is to pursue as many objectives as we can, doing many things and bringing a balanced outcome.

We should always think and decide with our own head because then we know the path that caused the consequences of our actions. It becomes easier to see our errors, make experience, start the next step.

If we have the humility to learn and the courage to take decisions, then we are safe because we always have a way forth, no matter how dreadful the consequences of our previous decisions.

When I prepared a speech for the "Greater Bay Area Sharing Forum" in May 2019 in Shenzhen, it was quite natural for me to look at events of my 20 years spent in the region and tell the stories of mistakes I made and how they became milestones along my path. No failure is a disaster if you build on it.
So, here I share five pieces of my little treasure:

THE PHOENIX PROJECT

• MY QUEST TO ‘CONQUER’ CHINA
• A HANDWRITTEN FIASCO
• FIVE MINUTES THAT CHANGED HISTORY
• PROTOTYPING FAILURE
• THE SITTING MACHINE

Credits

• Thanks to Riccardo Panzini and Bailey Hu to help me revising the text.
• Thanks to the organizers of the "Greater Bay Sharing Forum" and especially Markey, who invited me and created the opportunity to share these stories.
• Thanks to those who offered me the opportunity to learn while working with them.
• Thanks to Pixabay and its contributors to make available the great pictures I use on this website.
• Thank you to spend time and read this