FBC – 289 – I Messed Up Big Time…Gotta Stay Focused

I Messed Up Big Time.Gotta Stay Focused

And it's just a reminder, I just finished working on this, not working, but gathering these assets. And I'm like, dude, how did I forget this? You know, because sometimes there are things that you already have, but you're just thinking about what else? Can I get something new and stuff.

So me, for example, I had this really highly targeted list of people that I wasn't using because I was like, oh, man, I need to do this, I need to do that on Facebook. So the first thing you need to do when you want to do something is list all the assets that you already have. This is going to give you the spark you already have.

In a lot of cases. You already have people that you can put your offer, whatever it is that you're doing in front of OK. And we very often forget about it because of something else that happened. For me, the same thing like a conversation with someone saying, oh, man, I'm doing this and you’re not. You need to get on that as well. And then you forget. Right.

The first thing you need to do is check your assets that you already have. You might be surprised what you have. Sometimes you have a list, you know, even if it's a small list. It's better than starting from nothing and having to go in battle with people.

But anyway, it was a conscious decision to go and spend the whole freaking day creating, you know, split test variations and all that stuff. But, you know, it was all for Facebook, which I shouldn't be doing because I should be focusing on something else.

So what I'm saying is that in the sequence, the order of things where I said, dude, I'm going to stay focused, I'm going to carry this task out, I failed to do this. And I'm just reporting back to the base, you know, when the soldier messes up, he comes back and says, well, I messed up. I don't want to have a podcast here. And you think that, oh, this guy is perfect.

It's just that I made more mistakes than a lot of you. All right, so it's not that I'm perfect, just a lot more mistakes than you did. And that's one of them. And I will try not to make those mistakes again. And I'll try to learn as much as possible from these mistakes so that I don't do them again.

So I'm not very proud of myself for getting distracted like this. So I need to get back on what I was doing and to finish it, because this thing is actually really powerful and it's a lot more evergreen and a lot more scalable than what I'm doing with, like Facebook and stuff.

About the Author

Martin Ebongue is the founder of martinebongue.com, an online business and lifestyle design blog focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs build location-independent businesses. Since 2014, he has been creating and scaling online ventures across multiple niches, from digital products and affiliate marketing to SaaS and content platforms, while traveling the world. He shares the real-world strategies, tools, and systems that work, with a particular focus on AI-powered automation for solopreneurs. Follow him on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

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The mistake was not the problem. Losing focus was.

Everyone messes up big. I have, more than once, across 20+ years and 49 countries of building businesses. The mistake is rarely what sinks you. What sinks you is the two weeks of scattered, guilty flailing that follows, where you chase three new ideas at once because facing the one that broke feels worse. Focus is not a personality trait. It is the discipline of doing the next right thing instead of ten anxious ones.

My reset is mechanical, not motivational. When I slip, I cut my open projects back to one, automate everything around it so my attention has nowhere to leak, and rebuild from there. I ran this exact reset after costly misfires and it is how the DVDs-from-a-closet operation in 2003 became companies I run from Bali. Harvard Business Review has documented how decision fatigue quietly wrecks founder judgment, and HubSpot keeps proving that the operators who narrow their focus win the hours back. More of the story sits on my story page and my podcast. Narrow down. Then move.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is admitting business mistakes valuable for entrepreneurs?

Public admission shortens the learning curve for the founder and the audience. It also builds trust faster than any marketing tactic. Customers and peers tolerate mistakes when context and lessons are shared openly. They lose trust permanently when mistakes are hidden, blamed elsewhere, or quietly rewritten in the founder's own story.

What types of business mistakes are worth sharing publicly?

Strategic errors, hiring failures, and pricing miscalculations. They teach widely transferable lessons. Avoid sharing operational details that violate customer privacy, partner agreements, or legal obligations. The right public mistake is one where you can name the wrong belief, the cost, and the new operating rule it produced.

How do you recover from a major business mistake?

Take 48 hours to stop the bleeding, write a plain-language post-mortem, and tell affected stakeholders directly. Then change one structural rule, not 10 small ones. Most founders over-correct after a mistake and add complexity. The right response is usually a single new guardrail and a return to standard operations.

Should entrepreneurs hide mistakes from customers and partners?

Almost never. Customers who learn about a hidden mistake from a third source punish the cover up more than the original error. Partners who feel managed instead of informed reduce trust over time. Direct disclosure, fast, costs less in every measurable dimension than the alternative of waiting and hoping.