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PODCAST

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in Business and Leadership

My Favorite Mistake is a podcast about learning without blame in business and leadership. Despite the name, it’s not just my favorite mistake—it’s yours, it’s ours, and it’s what we can all learn from when things don’t go as planned. Hosted by author and consultant Mark Graban, each episode features honest conversations with leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, and changemakers about a meaningful mistake they made—and what they learned after things went wrong. How they responded. How they improved

business management

All Episodes

40:12

What Bruce Springsteen's Set List Teaches Leaders...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/04/06

Andy Freed has seen Bruce Springsteen perform 95 times. Somewhere along the way, he stopped just enjoying the shows and started studying them -- how Springsteen prepares a set list, reads an audience, paces energy across a four-hour performance, and makes every musician on stage feel like the most important person in the room.Episode page with links, video, and more Andy is CEO of Virtual Inc. and author of Lead Like the Boss: The Bruce Springsteen Framework to Elevating Your Leadership. His

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44:12

Why Hope Outperforms Resilience -- with Dr. Julia Garcia

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/03/30

Dr. Julia Garcia -- psychologist, author, and host of The Journey with Dr. J -- built two businesses that didn't survive. Episode page with links, video, and more The first was a performing arts collective that grew to 20 people before the economics collapsed. The second was a mental health app for young girls experiencing harassment on social media -- grant-funded, scrappy, and gaining real traction -- until a cross-country move, a young son, no childcare, and an eroded sense of self-worth made it

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46:55

Why "Have a Sense of Humor" Was the Wrong Company...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/03/23

Mike Chaput bought his first company at 24, went bankrupt at 28, and started over. When he co-founded Endsight, he and his partners worked hard to establish company values -- and landed on one that sounded great: "Have a sense of humor and take enjoyment from the day." The problem? Elevating humor to the top of the values hierarchy gave permission for blame-based behaviors, including a rubber chicken shaming ritual where the chicken got hung on the cubicle of anyone who made a mistake.Episode page

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45:38

Why Being Great at Your Job Isn't Enough to Get...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/03/16

Kendall Berg was the most productive person on every team she joined. She was so technically good at her job that she thought she didn't have to be nice. Then a VP she respected -- someone outside her chain of command -- pulled her aside and delivered six words that changed her career: "Nobody likes working with you." Episode page with links, video, and more That blunt feedback could have been a setback. Instead, it became the catalyst for a complete transformation. Kendall spent a year building

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42:36

The Mistake of Going It Alone -- with Patrick Engasser

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/03/09

Patrick Engasser spent two years ranked near the bottom of a 615-person sales organization -- broke, in debt, and grinding through trial and error -- before one decision changed everything. He hired a coach. The problem wasn't effort or talent. It was not knowing that was even an option.Episode page with links and more In this episode, Patrick shares the mindset shift that had to happen before any strategy could work, how he turned blindness from a perceived liability into a genuine competitive

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41:53

Why Conflict Avoidance Costs More Than Conflict --...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/03/02

Dr. Jen Fry's favorite mistake is a disagreement with her best friend of over ten years -- a small miscommunication that led to eight months of silence. Neither of them knew how to reconcile it. Then Jen's mother passed away, and her friend sent a card. That single act of reaching out changed how Jen thinks about conflict, reconciliation, and the kind of people worth keeping in her life.Episode page with transcript, links, and more Jen is a sports geographer, tech founder, TEDx speaker, and author

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5:36

Robot Umpires Are Here: ABS and the Mistakes It May...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/26

Baseball has always made room for human error. Umpires miss calls. Fans complain. Life goes on.But this season, MLB is rolling out the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system -- ABS -- giving teams two challenges per game to contest ball-and-strike calls. The idea is to reduce bad calls. The likely side effect is a whole new category of mistakes. In this "Mistake of the Week," Mark Graban looks at what happens when correcting human error depends on another human decision -- and what one

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55:30

Public Health Shouldn’t Be Political — A Career...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/23

In this episode of My Favorite Mistake, Mark Graban talks with Dr. Tyler B. Evans, infectious diseases and addiction medicine physician, public health leader, and author of Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics.Episode page with links, video, and more Dr. Evans shares a deeply personal “mistake” — giving up his dream of working in global health abroad to take what he thought was a conventional job in the United States. That decision led him to work with Native American communities in Wyoming, build

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4:29

When a Water Leak Turns a Street Into Ice: Mistake of...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/19

A forgotten water heater tap led to an overnight leak, an unexpected ice rink, and a reminder that the real lesson isn’t about blame — it’s about designing systems that catch small mistakes before they spread.A small, human slip led to a big, icy problem in a neighborhood in northwest China. After a woman forgot to turn off the tap on her solar water heater, water flowed unnoticed for nine hours — and overnight temperatures turned the street outside into an accidental skating

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40:04

Confusing Performance with Alignment — A Leadership...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/16

In Episode 339 of My Favorite Mistake, Mark Graban talks with Genevieve Skory, executive coach and former Chief Field Development Officer, about a leadership mistake that many high performers make: confusing performance with alignment. Episode page with links, video, and more For years, Genevieve defined winning by revenue and results. Pressure was normal. Constant pivoting felt strategic. Intensity was rewarded. The numbers came in — but so did exhaustion, turnover, and a culture operating in

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3:30

Olympic Medals That Couldn’t Handle the Celebration |...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/11

After winning gold at the Winter Olympics, skier Breezy Johnson did what champions do — she jumped for joy.And her medal fell off. She later joked, “Don’t jump in them… I was jumping in excitement and it broke,” adding that it was “not, like, crazy broken. But, a little broken.” Other athletes experienced similar ribbon failures during their celebrations. In this episode of Mistake of the Week, Mark Graban looks at what happens when a system fails during the very moment it’s designed to support —

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43:09

I Made a Marine Cry: Leadership, Authority, and...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/09

What happens when a leader realizes their approach caused real harm?In this episode of My Favorite Mistake, U.S. Marine Corps officer and leadership mentor Olaolu Ogunyemi shares a defining moment early in his career—recognizing that his leadership style, while well-intended, crossed a line and made a Marine cry. Episode page with links, video, and more Rather than defending his authority, Olaolu reflects on the gap between intent and impact, and how that moment forced him to rethink what effective

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5:15

When Diesel Ends Up Where It Shouldn’t — Mistake of...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/05

Most of us pull up to a gas pump on autopilot—until something goes wrong. In this Mistake of the Week, host Mark Graban looks at a real-world systems failure that affected hundreds of drivers across the Denver metro area. Due to an upstream error at a fuel terminal, diesel fuel was mistakenly delivered into the gasoline supply—leading to stalled cars, tow trucks, and costly repairs. Instead of rushing to blame or punishment, Colorado regulators emphasized learning, investigation, and prevention

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46:09

Ray Zinn: Why Repeating the Same Mistake Is the Real...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/02/02

Ray Zinn—longtime CEO of Micrel Semiconductor and the longest-serving CEO of a publicly traded company in Silicon Valley history—doesn’t believe the real problem is making mistakes. He believes the real failure is repeating the same mistake without fixing it. Episode page with links, video, and more In this episode of My Favorite Mistake, Ray shares leadership lessons from nearly four decades running Micrel, including why popular slogans like “fail fast, fail often” can actually normalize bad

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38:56

Undercharging for Consulting: Amy Rasdal on Fear,...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/01/25

What happens when you know your value—but say a lower number anyway?In this episode of My Favorite Mistake, Mark Graban is joined by Amy Rasdal, founder of Billable at the Beach and author of Land a Consulting Project Now. Amy shares her favorite mistake from the early days of consulting: undercharging for her work because of fear, even when she knew she was worth more. Amy explains how that moment became a “gateway mistake,” leading her to better understand pricing, confidence, and the hidden

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5:36

Releasing the Wrong Body Is Not Just “Human Error” -...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/01/22

A devastating hospital mistake in Glasgow was described by leaders as “human error,” even as they acknowledged that “very rigorous processes” were not followed.In this episode of The Mistake of the Week, Mark Graban examines why suspensions and discipline don’t guarantee improvement — and how gaps between written procedures and real work create hidden risk. Punishment may feel like accountability, but without fixing the system, the same harm remains possible.

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44:55

How Buying an Oil Tanker Became My Favorite Mistake —...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/01/19

What happens when a business deal looks solid on paper—but falls apart in real life?Episode page with video, links, and more My guest for Episode #335 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kevin Hipes, an entrepreneur, author, and former city commissioner who’s been called the “New York Forrest Gump” because of the many lives he’s lived. Kevin shares the story of one of his biggest—and most unforgettable—business mistakes: buying an oil tanker in the Caribbean. What began as a seemingly foolproof

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6:23

“But I Wore the Juice”: The True Story That Inspired...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/01/15

What does a failed bank robbery have to do with one of the most cited ideas in psychology?More than you might expect. In this episode of My Favorite Mistake, Mark Graban tells the true story of McArthur Wheeler, a man who believed that rubbing lemon juice on his face would make him invisible to security cameras. Confident in his reasoning—and even more confident in his ability to test it—Wheeler walked into two Pittsburgh banks in broad daylight, fully exposed, certain that his citrus-based logic

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39:32

Choosing Engineering When I Was Wired for People...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/01/12

Episode PageAngie Callen — founder of Career Bend, host of No More Mondays, and author of Scary Good: Discovering Life Beyond the Sunday Scaries — shares why choosing engineering school became her favorite mistake. In this episode, Angie reflects on becoming an engineer despite being deeply people-oriented, how that decision shaped her thinking, and why mistakes that “don’t fit” often unlock clarity, confidence, and unexpected opportunity. Mark and Angie discuss career transitions, Sunday Scaries,

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3:58

The HR Tool That Accidentally Fired Everyone -...

My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in... ·

2026/01/08

In this week’s Mistake of the Week, a company’s HR team accidentally sent a mass termination email to the entire workforce — including the CEO. The culprit was an offboarding automation tool left in the wrong mode, turning a routine test into a company-wide panic.Mark Graban explores what this moment teaches about automation, human fallibility, and the danger of relying on memory in systems that affect people’s livelihoods. Instead of asking, “Who pressed the wrong button?”, the real question is,

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134 results

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