Mistakes Matter

JAIMIE FULLER, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, SKINS, AND CHAIRMAN OF THE SKINS FOUNDATION FOR SPORTS INTEGRITY, ON WHY MISTAKES ARE YOUR BUSINESS’S MOST IMPORTANT INVESTMENT.

While some people look at a successful business and only think ‘wow’, I find it’s also worthwhile to look a little deeper and find out what mistakes a business has made along the way. Because one thing is for sure: there isn’t a business in the world that hasn’t made a mistake. The point is – and it’s a truism that is nonetheless true – it’s what you take out of those mistakes that matters. It’s important to learn from them, turn things around and grow from that.

I bought into SKINS about 16 years ago not because I wanted to necessarily make sports compression equipment, but because I wanted to get into sport. It was a company not only making something innovative, bold and ambitious – garments that improve sports performance and aid recovery – but it was something I could use personally as an avid skier and, best of all, it was my entrée into the sports industry.

More to the point, SKINS needed me, because it was also going broke and I had capital.

SKINS was a genuine pacesetter. We led the creation and manufacture of sports compression wear. Professional athletes soon discovered it; amateur athletes did too; and the company enjoyed rapid growth. Today, we continue to pride ourselves on continuing to lead the sports performance category.

MISTAKE #1

...AND THE TEAMWORK LESSON