Once you develop a plan and put it into action, you’re not finished. In fact, if you want to succeed, you’re never finished. Success is in the journey, the continual process. And no matter how hard you work, you will not create the perfect plan or execute it without error. You will never get to the point that you no longer make mistakes, that you no longer fail. But that’s okay.

This is a quote by John C. Maxwell from his book Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success (Thomson Nelson 2000, page 184).

My experience tells me that this statement is true. There have been times that I have failed, miserably, only to find the seeds of success in the failure. This is not looking for the ‘silver lining,’ nor is it ‘turning lemons into lemonade.’ Rather, this is about learning from the failure; taking away a lesson that will help you become successful.

To provide an example, I failed the training to be an Air Traffic Controller (along with two-thirds of my class). On the first day of class the instructor told us to “look to your right, now look to your left. Two of the three of you will not be here at the end of this training course.”

At the beginning of the course, I was absolutely lost. I didn’t have a clue about any of the material I was being taught. However, I persevered, studied and worked and slowly the material and information began to make sense. I started to use the knowledge appropriately in the simulations. Even so, my efforts weren’t enough and I failed. Yet, my experience with this course showed that I was a much better student than I thought I was. This realization put me on the path to earning an undergraduate degree in Business and a Masters degree.

This blog is about sharing ideas and thoughts that may help us to become better. Better at working with change. Better at finding opportunities. Better at simply improving our lives and the lives of others.

I invite you to be a part of this process. I welcome your thoughts, ideas and suggestions, along with your complaints and criticisms. At all times, please be polite and respectful.

Thank you for reading this blog and for passing onto friends, family and co-workers, posts that you find interesting or useful.