Don’t we just not learn by our mistakes! When i am throwing on the wheel the last thing on my mind are the mistakes I’ve made on other pots. I feel it is more important to go with the  feel of the clay and try to get some parts of the form right At the beginning keep it simple and keep trying to create those basic shapes. Keep going over and over them trying to create a bowl or Cylinder I have a very good set of videos which shows these basic stages in forming the bowl and Cylinder. Here is the first one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwmBn8m397E .