Here are the variety of ways I have gotten conned or screwed up in the last 12 years:

1. Paid for 304 steel and gotten 202 grade steel. I lost a lot on this.
2. Incorporated as a private limited company with no necessity for it.
3. Wasted lakhs on building a nutrition website that no one asked for.
4. Did not think through equipment designs and had to pay for re-working designs. I learnt a bit. But it was a steep price. I have screwed up benches, landmines, squat racks, trap bars, lever squats, tbells, handles, pulleys, pull up bars among other designs.
5. Did not start writing early enough in my coaching career.
6. Not spending enough time reading up on the science of how muscles work. You can never spend enough time on this.
7. Using a crude spreadsheet for CRM. The nutrition website might have been better channelled as a tool to help manage clients.
8. Cheaped out or deferred to authority. Simple example. We should have threaded a peg and welded it into a pipe. We didn’t. And I’ve had to rework the entire push up/pull up rig pictured below within 3 years of making it.
9. Didn’t explore scrap yards early enough. It would saved us a tonne.
10. Haven’t taken the time to learn to sketch out or model equipment on software.
11. Didn’t pick a simple enough name for my gym: movement inc is a mouthful. And no one calls it by that name. Now it’s a little late to call it anything else. I was pig headed about the name even when lots of folks told me otherwise.
12. Not figured out how to make good videos or quickly enough. This despite having studied broadcast journalism in college. I was terrible at it even then. But should work on it.
13. Can’t figure out how to improve our digital footprint. I completely dig Mejo Kuriachan work. And I know I would find great joy in a good website for my gym and online service. But I can’t figure out how to justify a website when everyone talks to us and asks us things on WhatsApp. Maybe its the battles scars again. Or just the lack of domain expertise. 
14. I haven’t found the conviction to make and share more content. Partly because I don’t know if people will use it. Also because how many people that use it will actually sign up with our service. Scars from our nutrition website effort :D 
15. Expanded our roof in four phases. Resulted in odd shapes and joints. Should have been more decisive and built it once and right covering every damn inch that we rent. 
16. Not fought hard enough for why i am 
right and ahead of the curve when it comes to exercise selection, coaching and emphasised protein choices and portion control long before it was fashionable. But I’ve never had the character to be a popular communicator. So I’ve made my peace with this. 

We managed to power through all of the above simply because clients paid us more than we spent.