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 — and why it’s encouraging that Olympic officials acknowledged the problem instead of blaming the athletes.

Because if your medal can’t survive celebration… what exactly was it tested for?

This episode explores:

• Designing for real human behavior (including joy)

• The importance of testing under realistic conditions

• Why admitting a flaw beats assigning blame

• What organizations can learn from a broken ribbon

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.

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Rather than defending his authority, Olaolu reflects on the gap between intent and impact, and how that moment forced him to rethink what effective leadership really looks like. We talk about learning from mistakes, the difference between fear-based compliance and true accountability, and why psychological safety is essential—even (and especially) in high-pressure environments like the military.

This conversation explores how leaders grow when they confront mistakes honestly, respond with humility, and commit to changing their behavior—not just their words.

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. That response matters—and it offers an important lesson about mistake-proofing, system design, and leadership.

In this episode, Mark explores:

• Why focusing on who made the mistake misses the real problem

• How mistake-proofing works—and where it often fails

• Why downstream safeguards can’t fix upstream system errors

• What leaders can learn from choosing curiosity over blame

Mistakes like this are disruptive and expensive—but they also create an opportunity to improve systems so the same error doesn’t happen again.

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.

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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 habits, how leaders unintentionally punish learning, and what it takes to build a culture focused on honesty, accountability, and fast problem-solving instead of blame.

Ray also reflects on how losing his eyesight in his late 50s fundamentally changed the way he led—forcing him to listen more deeply, trust others more fully, and become a more empathetic leader. Those experiences shaped his approach to leadership and his latest book, The Essential Leader.

If you care about learning from mistakes, building strong cultures, and leading without fear or ego, this conversation will challenge—and sharpen—your thinking.

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 beliefs that hold many accomplished professionals back. The conversation explores why undercharging is so common, how fear shows up in pricing conversations, and why selling out your time at a discount can quietly limit long-term success.

This episode is especially relevant for consultants, freelancers, and professionals considering a move from corporate life into independent work.

🔗 Full show notes: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake336

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.

What happens when a business deal looks solid on paper—but falls apart in real life?

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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 investment with a strong pro forma turned into a cascade of unexpected challenges, including regulatory changes, ethical dilemmas, geopolitical risk, and international drama.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why smart people still make big business mistakes

• How external forces can derail even the best plans

• Learning from failure instead of hiding from it

• Resilience after financial and emotional setbacks

• The importance of mental health awareness for leaders and entrepreneurs

Kevin’s story is funny, sobering, and deeply human—and a powerful reminder that mistakes don’t define us unless we refuse to learn from them.

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 would protect him.

It didn’t.

When police later showed him clear surveillance photos, Wheeler’s stunned response became legendary: “But I wore the juice.”

That moment caught the attention of psychologist David Dunning, who saw in Wheeler’s mistake something deeper than criminal incompetence. Along with Justin Kruger, Dunning went on to study how people with low skill often lack the awareness to recognize their own limitations—research that became known as the Dunning–Kruger Effect.

This episode explores the layered nature of mistakes: flawed assumptions, poorly designed tests, and the dangerous certainty that both are correct. It’s not a story about stupidity. It’s a story about human blind spots—and how easily confidence can outrun competence.

Whether in leadership, work, or everyday life, the lesson is universal: it’s not enough to test our ideas. We also have to test how we test them.

Because some of the most convincing mistakes are the ones that feel like proof.