𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧, 𝐁𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧. Post-mortem it. Or repeat it. Most business people — don't really want the truth. They want comfort. They want the numbers to look good. They want the story to sound smart. But if you want to actually get better, you need to stop high-fiving wins and start dissecting your screwups. That’s where the post-mortem comes in. “𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭.” – 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐚 And yet, people keep repeating. Why? Because they don’t look back—they rationalize. They say: “It wasn’t our fault.” “The market changed.” “We did everything right… it just didn’t work out.” Wrong. You didn’t do everything right. You just didn’t run the post-mortem. Do This After Every Deal, Project, or Decision Ask yourself: What was my original guess? What did I believe would happen? What actually happened? What worked? What flopped? What information did I miss—or ignore? What will I stop doing next time? Johnson & Johnson literally forces themselves to do this. Two years after a big deal, they pull out the original projections and compare them to the results—line by line. Why? Because truth doesn’t care about your feelings. It cares about accuracy. Warren Buffett put it like this: “𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐝𝐮𝐦𝐛 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝.” If You're Not Willing to Track Your Batting Average, You Shouldn’t Be at the Plate Charlie Munger calls it like it is: "𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲.” Translation: Look at what died. Figure out why. Then stop doing that. Too many businesspeople want to hide the bodies. They sugarcoat failure. They blame the market. They never improve. The best managers? They obsess over what didn’t work—because that’s where the gold is. Want to Be Smarter? Do post-mortems. Ruthlessly. Most people keep failing the same way because they’re scared of the truth. The truth isn’t comfortable—but it’s the only thing that makes you better. Get serious. Do the post-mortem. Or keep rewriting the same excuses in your investor reports.