You Can Only Learn From Your Mistakes

The Reader’s Edge | Charlie Samways | June 7, 2026 |

I’ve been reminded that if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning. 

For a couple of years, I knew I wanted to start a YouTube channel, but I was petrified by all the potential mistakes I could make. 

What if people mock me for what I share? What will my friends and family think? Will it take over my life in a bad way?

But it was the best decision I made for myself. And the mistakes I’ve learned so far have helped me grow as a person.

Mistakes also underpin many of the success stories we see today. That applies as much to Kindle as any other piece of technology. 

When the Kindle first launched in 2007, Amazon could tell they had a concept that would work. The device sold out in five and a half hours and stayed out of stock for months.

By all accounts, the first Kindle was an awkward and imperfect device – the page buttons were too easy to press accidentally, and the software was limited. Amazon continued to evolve the product until it reached a point in 2012, with the Kindle Paperwhite, where many feel that Kindle had become genuinely excellent.

Five years and multiple mistake-driven iterations to get the end result.

Plan-Do-Check-Act

Understanding that mistakes can help us improve is one thing. Acting on this realisation is another.

In the 1950s, W. Edwards Deming developed a concept that can provide us with the answers.

The system created by Deming was called the Plan-Do-Check-Act, but may be known to many under a different name. Because Deming took this framework to Japan after the Second World War, it is widely credited with transforming the Japanese manufacturing quality.

The Japanese term for this form of continuous improvement is kaizen, a word which means “change for the better” through small and consistent improvements.

Reframing any action in this light is transformative. Every mistake becomes data. Every small correction compounds over time into something meaningfully better.

Amazon did this with the Kindle over five years. You can do it with your reading habit in far less time.

This is exactly what this week's video is about. Eight mistakes I was making on my Kindle. Small, fixable, and each one is worth correcting. Kaizen applied to your reading habit.

This Week’s Question

What's a mistake you made with a book, a device, or a reading habit that taught you something you've genuinely carried forward? What changed as a result?

Reply to me at hello@charliesamways.com. I read every one.

From The Channel This Week

This week’s video looks at eight mistakes I used to make on my Kindle and how to stop them.

8 Kindle Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Reading Habit

Plus, don’t miss out on my Free Kindle Guide, available to download here

Wishing you all the best this week, and staying aware of those lessons that may benefit you in the long run.

Catch up next week,

Charlie Samways