Learning From Public Online Mistakes

[Richard Guerry]: If your kids ever do make a mistake, you know, a part of growing up is making mistakes. You know what every adult I know in my entire life, in technology, since the nineties, every time I speak to an adult or a room of adults, I hear this every day. See if the statement sounds familiar. “Man, thank God technology wasn’t around when I was growing up.” Right? How often do people say that? But our kids are growing up with it. And so, like to the young man who said, “I wish we could get rid of our footprint.”This is what I tell kids. “If you do make a mistake, that’s part of growing up. That’s why adults say they wish it wasn’t around when they were growing up. But starting in that moment, learn from your mistake.” Especially if you have younger kids – elementary, middle school, even high school. “Learn from your mistake and then in that moment, clear the slate.” And starting in that moment, you get 1, 2, 5 years of amazing decisions in the digital world. If people find that mistake in a background check and they see you’ve done a lot of great things since, the odds are they’re going to be willing to overlook the mistake you made on your time, in your time when you were younger and supposed to.