20/02/2026
Answering Questions Absolutely Nobody Asked…
Today’s question:
What do you do when you get something wrong?
Short answer?
You don’t hide it.
You don’t blame it.
You don’t pretend it didn’t happen.
You use the 3 R’s.
First — Review.
What actually happened?
Not emotionally. Not defensively. Just factually.
What was the plan?
What was executed?
Where did it shift?
Was it communication, detail, timing, or an assumption?
In construction — and in business — we don’t always get it right. That’s the reality. The review stage is about ownership. No ego. Just clarity.
If you can’t clearly define what went wrong, you can’t fix it.
Second — Research.
This is where pride gets parked at the door.
You don’t need all the answers. You’re not meant to have all the answers. But you do need to know who does.
This is where I lean on my team, my trades, my mentors, and the wider building community.
The best builders I know aren’t the ones who never make mistakes — they’re the ones who ask better questions.
How would you approach this?
What have you done in this situation?
What am I missing?
There’s real power in reaching out. The right building community wants to see each other win. Every time you do this, you level up.
Third — Reflect.
This is where the system changes.
If it happened once, it can happen again — unless you tweak the process.
Do we need a new checklist?
Clearer documentation?
A better pre-start conversation?
A different sign-off milestone?
Reflection turns a mistake into an upgrade.
If you don’t reflect, it’s just a setback.
If you do reflect, it becomes system improvement.
We don’t always get things right. Nobody does.
But what matters is that we review it, research it, and reflect on it.
And next time, we build it better.
