He found success by “dancing on the skeletons of other people's mistakes”

The quote above is from Sam Zell, a real estate mogul and now a media tycoon. I like the phraseology of that because to me what it brings to mind, and perhaps this is not what Zell meant by it, is the formula used in shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Each episode Shredder, or some other villain, would hatch an evil scheme and, while attempting to execute it, was dramatically thwarted by the turtles. What I didn't get is why the villains would never attempt the same scheme again but on the repeat attempt anticipate the turtle response and plan accordingly - thus becoming more likely to succeed.