My Mom Is Cool, Part II: Mistakes Will Be Made.

I recently shared that my mother worked at a New York ad agency in the early 1960s.

I didn't even know this until the height of Mad Men popularity, when she casually mentioned “Oh, I used to work at an agency like that. I should probably watch the show sometime.”

What?! Upon discovering this cool-factor about my mom, I had to know more. Here's what I learned:

• She worked as a secretary in the Creative department at McCann Erickson (rival agency to the fictional Sterling Cooper).

• The executives did, in fact, smoke a lot ("Constantly!") and keep bars in their offices.

• She was aware of a little bit of scandalous behavior, but she never participated in any of that (she was sweet and innocent, and I don't want to hear otherwise).

My favorite story?

Her boss rushed in one day and frantically exclaimed, “Clara! The Buick people are coming!”

A meeting with executives from Buick had been moved up, the ad copy wasn't ready, and it was too big of an account to lose.

Between nervous drags on a cigarette (I assume), he dictated the words as my mother typed the ad copy that would go beneath the image of a luxe leather sedan interior.

They finished up just as the Buick people were arriving.

The mood was tense (more cigarette-drags, in my vision of this Mad Men scene) as they waited to hear how the meeting turned out.

After a while, the conference room doors burst open, and out came the McCann Erickson and Buick executives, laughing loudly and patting each other on the back.

Why?

In her rush to type up the ad copy, my mother hadn't had time to proofread it.

Under the photo of the car interior, what was supposed to read, “You are now peering into the front seat of your brand new Buick sedan…,”instead said:

“You are now peeing into the front seat of your brand new Buick sedan.”

A mistake that could have been a disaster (and gotten her fired) broke the tension in the room, led to laughter and camaraderie between the auto and ad executives, and essentially saved the day.

I know I preach “imperfect action” all the time, but there's a reason for that (…and it's not just that it obviously runs in my genes):

There's no other way to move forward. The only other option to imperfect action is paralysis. Your business needs you to take risks and put yourself out there.

…And you never know, even your mistakes may lead to serendipitous wins.

What's an imperfect action or mistake that's turned out well for you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.