Learning from mistakes

I am learning from a mistake I made and instead of hiding under the carpet, thought of sharing it and the actions I plan to take to avoid such in the future. The mistake involved two parts.

Working with

My interpretation of “working with” was not interpreted by my friend the same way, even though he was fully briefed by me on a regular basis. I work with a number of friends and they were all mentioned on our team page as my “team”. I have now made it clear on our team page that I work with my team on project by project basis. I have also introduced a new clause into our Agreements with clients to reflect this disclosure.

Commissions we earn

At present, we represent technology companies who may or may not seek our help to find Funders. We earn commission from some of the Funders and not from others. Who we earn commission from need to be fully disclosed. This was not the case with one of our clients, even though at the time, we have not introduced them formally. This was wrong and we need to be upfront of who we earn commissions from. As expected, a new clause has been added to our Agreements.

Whilst you might think above two issues are minor, it made a client feel that I have deceived him. When trust is broken you loose credibility. And that’s not a good place for anyone to end up in. Lesson learned, apologised, corrective action put in place and time to move forward.

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