One of the incidents that has completely inspired me this month is the dedication of one company and particularly its owner to rectify a mistake. She has created true magic by turning a mistake into a wonderful experience.

In preparation for the Striding Man Awards, I decided to buy myself a beautiful corset from Stoned Cherrie. As I don’t really enjoy shopping I left this purchase until the last minute – in fact it was about 17h30 on the night of the event that I bought this corset. Imagine my dismay when I got home, opened up my package and suddenly saw that the big brown plastic anti-theft tag had not been removed. Unwilling to start a new fashion trend by wearing the corset with tag to the event, I instead had to scrimmage desperately through my wardrobe for something else to wear. Yikes! Needless to say, I was a little upset and so the next day took the item back to Stoned Cherrie and asked for a refund. What then happened in the following 2 weeks has been the most amazing and caring service excellence. I have been called by the owner of Stoned Cherrie, Nkhensani, to personally apologise for the mistake and imagine my delight when last week on my desk I received a package from Stoned Cherrie – a beautiful pair of sunglasses from their new range.

This whole incident has made me rethink about mistakes and challenges – often we perceive mistakes that we make or challenges that we face in our lives as negative and try to shy away from them, sweep them under the carpet and make them disappear.

However this Stoned Cherrie example has inspired me, so that when I next make a mistake or face a challenge that I ask the question –

how is this an opportunity? How can I turn this into something good and positive?

With a few simple actions, Stoned Cherrie turned a little mistake into me being a loyal customer and advocate of their brand.

How can you turn some of your mistakes or current challenges into a winning situation?