We Are All Human: Lessons From Steve Harvey's Mistake

Source: CNN.com

If you're like me the Miss Universe Pageant came and went without you even batting an eye. I rarely get on social media but I just happened to get on the day after the pageant and then I realized I must have missed something. There were posts all over the place discussing Steve Harvey's incredible mistake. If you don't know by now, he mixed up the name of the winner of the pageant, causing the wrong country to be named the winner. When he recognized his mistake minutes later, he came back out, acknowledged his wrong, and the correct country was named the winner. Now I will admit this was a significant mistake and if I was a Colombian (the wrongly named Miss Universe) I would be heated; but where I stand amazed is how everyone else responded to it. People reacted like Steve Harvey made the worst mistake in life, or like he did it in such a horrifying way. I believe there is a lesson to be learned from this whole situation.

We live in a society where perfection is the expectation when the reality is that we are all human. Now don't get me wrong, I think that we should all strive to be perfect in everything we do, no matter what the outcome, but we have to know that the probability of us batting 100 each and every time is slim to none. It's not about not making a mistake but instead the lessons learned from the mistake and how we use the lessons to make ourselves better for the future. Let's break down how Steve Harvey handled his blunder.

1. He acknowledged his mistake
Reports state that the moment Steve Harvey recognized that he made a mistake he was honest about it. He could've easily let the competition proceed like nothing happened but he made his human error known. When you make a mistake, own up to it. Trying to hide it doesn't work, what's done in the dark eventually comes to the light. The first step in correcting a mistake is acknowledging what happened.
2. He took the steps to correct his mistake
As soon as Steve Harvey confirmed his mistake he walked back out onto the stage and let everyone know what happened, and he announced the correct winner. Sometimes when we make a mistake we have the option to leave the mess for someone else to clean up, we can let someone else bear the brunt of the embarrassment and shame. That is taking the low road. No matter how hard it is, or how much time it takes, when we make a mistake we have to put the work in to make it right.
3. He took responsibility for his role in the mistake
Steve Harvey was not hesitant to highlight what he did wrong. He could've blamed the organization for how they printed the card, he could've blamed his nerves, or a number of other things. Instead he made it clear that the fault was on him. Just like it's easy to place the burden of the "clean up" on someone else, it's incredibly easy to place the responsibility elsewhere as well. But, when we do this, the mistake is never truly corrected, the spotlight turns to the wrong source, and the true issue is never addressed. As hard as it may seem, owning up to our wrongs is essential in correcting any mistake.
4.He apologized
I'm sorry is only seven letters long but when it is heartfelt and honest it bears the weight of the world. Steve Harvey is a celebrity with a great deal of fame and notoriety. In this role it is easy to walk away from a situation like this without a care in the world, knowing that another situation will come. In spite of this Steve Harvey still made it a priority to make his apology heard. Whether people are looking for it or not, when we are wrong we have to apologize. This is the closure that is needed to end the process of correcting the mistake, whether it is accepted or not. Without doing this, all of the previous steps are null and void.   

As a result of going through this process, Steve Harvey was offered a multi-year deal hosting the Miss Universe Pageant. I would like to think that the organization saw him as a human, fully capable of making mistakes, and that instead of penalizing him for it they honored his ability to do what most of us cannot, make the wrong right. There have been countless memes aimed at humiliating Steve Harvey and highlighting his mistake. I think that instead of making him the clown we should make him the hero. Human enough to make an error and human enough to acknowledge, correct, own, and apologize for his mistake.

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new"~ Albert Einstein