MEDIJATOR Saša Petar

Guest Saša PetarHosted by Srđan ŠimacMay 3, 2026

Saša Petar

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

What if the most damaging mistake you could make isn't the error itself, but the fear of making one? Many companies, and too many individuals, operate under the implicit rule that failure is an indictment, a mark of incompetence to be avoided at all costs. This episode challenges that deeply ingrained aversion. Saša Petar, an author of 32 business books and a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, argues that this fear is a greater obstacle than any misstep. Drawing from his book, 'How to Succeed Thanks to Mistakes,' he explores how our upbringing, corporate culture, and even our competitive instincts often push us to avoid risk or, worse, to highlight others' errors rather than focusing on our own growth. He shares examples from his own career and from companies like 3M, where a culture of experimentation—even if it meant a lab occasionally blowing up—led to some of their most iconic products. You'll leave this conversation rethinking how you, your team, and your organization approach missteps, seeing them not as endpoints, but as essential triggers for progress and fresh thinking.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Saša Petar describes himself as someone whose mistakes are 'guaranteed' because he constantly pursues new, untrodden paths. If you're not making mistakes, you might not be pushing boundaries enough; the probability of error is highest when you're truly innovating.

Many people, Saša Petar observes, try to advance by 'pointing out Srđan's mistakes so he looks worse than you, so you can take his place.' This habit, often learned early, trades genuine self-improvement for a destructive focus on others' failures.

Jack Welch, named Manager of the 20th Century, famously 'blew up his first laboratory' at GE, yet was not fired. His company understood that a mistake made while striving for something new is not a failure, but a sign of genuine effort that merits a second chance.

'A mistake happens only the first time,' Saša Petar notes; 'every subsequent time, if it repeats, it becomes a pattern of behavior.' The real measure of a learning culture is how quickly a one-off error becomes a new standard for avoiding that specific problem.

Saša Petar describes two counterproductive extremes in addressing errors: either praising everything, which removes any standard of quality, or instantly punishing, which stifles any initiative. The useful middle ground is to acknowledge mistakes critically, allowing for discussion without immediate retribution.

At 3M, where Saša Petar worked for 13 years, a policy from 1943 allowed engineers to spend 15% of their time on projects their bosses had rejected. Seven of 3M's top ten products came from this 'unapproved' work, demonstrating that radical breakthroughs often emerge when individuals are trusted to follow their own conviction.

Saša Petar advises successful organizations and families to 'pray for a mistake'—not a catastrophic one, but an error in thinking or a proposed idea. Such a mistake, when openly discussed, serves as a trigger for better ideas and a pathway to a more robust solution.

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