The “Rookie Mistake”

I heard someone in passing the other day talking about someone else’s “rookie mistake.” The more I thought on this concept, the more I realized a rookie mistake is pretty close to an oxymoron. To be a rookie, a person doesn’t know any better as to what will work in a situation and what will not. To make a mistake implies that a person has faced a situation previously and failed. Rookies don’t make rookie mistakes, they make “rookie learning experiences.” The fear of “rookie mistakes” is the reason so many people never leave the bench to take their first at bat.