In David Garofalo's first book, David vs. Goliath - How to Compete and Beat the Online Giant: 100 Proven Promotions for Brick and Mortar Retailers, one question kept coming up: Why doe's all his ideas work so well?
The truth? They don't. Those hundred ideas were the ones that did work, the winners, the proven promotions. What you didn't see were the many ideas that fizzled, flopped, or went down in flames. David had his share of failures. More than a few. Some were harmless missteps. Others were outright disasters he explains.

Frank Sinatra said it best in "My Way": "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention." That's how David looks at mistakes. He has certainly had some, probably more than most, but that's only because he took more chances than most. If those makes makes him a gambler, then fine... but he is not the kind who bets at casinos, on sports, or on scratch tickets. The only thing he truly bet on is himself.

And here's another one of his secrets: he only make educated bets, moves where he will have at least some control over the outcome. Win or lose, each one is an education. A tuition. A life lesson he never got from any college classroom.

Speaking of college, no, he didn't even go. He wasn't wealthy enough or, frankly, academically impressive enough at the time. But he never stopped learning. His education came from the real world, from getting knocked down, standing back up, and figuring out why he got knocked down in the first place. Mistakes have been some of his greatest teachers, and he's had plenty despite his many successes. But every failure, every misstep, every "what was I thinking?" moment taught him something valuable. That's how he became wiser, and yes, wealthier.

This book is about those lessons. The painful ones, the expensive ones, the ones you only need to learn once, if you're paying attention. This book can help you avoid mistakes.

Think of it like this: you're at a restaurant, the waiter places your dish on the table and says, "Careful, the plate is hot." And what do you do? You touch it. Every time. You know better, but for some reason you have to feel it for yourself. That's human nature.

In these pages, the waiter is telling you which plates are hot. The author is showing you the burns he got so that maybe, just maybe, you won't have to get burned too.

If you read something here and later see it happening in your own business, or your own life, The hope is that you recognize it in time. The hope is that you trust the warning. And the hope is you pull your hand back before you get burned.
Learn from other people's mistakes.