At my first job, I realized that I’d missed a meeting invite and my team had started without me. I was early in my career, and hesitant to join the meeting late in-person. I felt embarrassed and, without knowing it, I started beating myself up. How could I be so inept? If I could make such a stupid mistake, how will my boss trust me with more important work? What will my coworkers think of me?

It’s an amateur mistake to expect yourself to be perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. The professional knows not to let a small mistake—like being late by accident—escalate into something bigger—like missing an entire meeting because you don’t want to feel embarrassed or admit you made a mistake. The pro corrects their mistake and changes the system so they don’t make the same mistake next time—all without beating themselves up.

Of course, never late is best. But nobody is perfect, and late will always be better than never. (This is also what I tell myself when I am late to publishing a blog post for the day.)