At some point in your career, you are going to get something wrong.

You will miss something. Misjudge a deadline. Say the wrong thing. Forget a detail. Make a decision that does not work.

Welcome to being human.

The question is not whether you will make mistakes.

The real question is what happens next.

Most people think reputation is built in the big career moments: the promotion interview, the senior presentation, the huge project or the high-stakes meeting.

Those moments matter.

Yet usually, by the time you get to the big moment, people already have a view of you and that view has often been shaped by hundreds of tiny interactions you barely noticed.

You might know exactly what you want next. Or you might have a rough idea. Or, very realistically, you might still be figuring it out.

All of those are fine.

The problem starts when you assume everyone else somehow knows what you are thinking.

Because they don't.

There is a lot of pressure early in your career to have everything figured out. The right role. The right next move. The right five-year plan. The right answer when someone asks, ‘Where do you see yourself going?’

The truth is, most careers are not that neat.