Fucking up

It's a matter of fact. You will fuck up at some point. It will probably cost your firm money. The scary thing in finance is that when you fuck something up, it costs the firm a very tangible amount of money. One of my favorite quotes is a manager I knew who once said:
"Just promise me you'll make a small mistake."
Most people who survive in this business make one very memorable mistake and become paranoid to the point of never really making a mistake again. Among my friends, the average first mistake size was somewhere close to $400k. That's not too bad. My first mistake was worth about $1.5m. Yea, that hurt. So what do you do when you make a mistake?

1) Fess up. Let your boss know you made a mistake and make it clear you're about to fix it.
2) Fix it. That doesn't necessarily mean make back the money you lost--that may be impossible--but make sure you've made your clients whole and you've made yourself good with your business partners.
3) Think it through. Figure out what went wrong and address the problem. Was it communication? Was it just the fact that you never double-checked your work? Was it systematic?
4) Don't let it get to you. Everyone's made a mistake. People may yell at you as if it's never happened to them, but it probably has. You need to keep doing your job and doing it well. If an error rattles you to the point that you become useless at your job, then you may well be fired.
4) Don't do it again. Enough said.

Keep a clear head and navigate your mistakes. It is those who weather the hard times that will eventually make it to the top.