How much do small mistakes actually cost?

I recently created a concept i call the "7 mile". I was leaving my office towards a job site with a business associate. When we came to an intersection 7 miles away I asked her "Did we go in the correct direction?"

"It's not a big deal, " she responded " if we did, we only traveled 7 miles out of the way!" And while she was right, it wasn't a big deal, it got me thinking.

If we traveled 7 miles in the opposite direction at the rate of speed we were going it would have added roughly an extra 30 minutes to our overall trip, by the time we were back on track, which on any other day could have resulted in a lost appointment with a customer.

Going the wrong way would have actually added 14 miles to my my mileage, not seven, costing me nearly a gallon of gas in a full size pick-up with a loaded trailer. But that is not all. Besides the increased depreciation of my pick up, we exposed ourselves to a potential accident, possibly even fatal, that we did not need to, by being on the road longer than actually required.

Had i gotten upset, screamed, and hurt my relationship with this person, she may have made a poor judgement call and made a U-turn, possibly without signalling, potentially causing an accident. Or maybe encouraging her to quit, forcing me to replace her.

How do you mitigate a risk like that? By creating a culture that plans first, then executes. Having open communication, and realizing that risk is not the enemy, but, it does need to be planned for.

Risk to me is like an ocean, the boat, would represent my business, and my life jacket is how i mitigate risk.

In simpler terms, and to sum it up nicely, I plan for mistakes, mishaps, accidents and I charge more, even slightly more as a form of risk mitigation. It's small, like a life jacket. It's simple in concept, and inexpensive. And when everything goes wrong, its going to be exactly what saves me.