As I write about in The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, there are knowledge-based mistakes (where you don’t know how to do something the right way) and there are execution mistakes (where you know what to do, but you slip up and do something wrong).
An embarrassing mistake was made recently at the State Fair of Texas — I almost made a mistake by calling it the “Texas State Fair,” which would have been a knowledge-based mistake. Now I know.
State Fair of Texas fixes embarrassing welcome sign mistake
Texas ranks as the 10th least-educated state in the U.S.
Maybe this was a bit of brilliant viral marketing to get more attention to the fair. Is it true that “no publicity is bad publicity”??
The Fair had fun in correcting the sign and shared this video:
This is what happens when we let Little Big Tex proofread, but we’re so glad YOU’RE here! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/cwreMAzc5b
— State Fair of Texas (@StateFairOfTX) October 3, 2023
I hope this served as a bit of grammar education for Texans and that people can learn to avoid repeating this mistake.