If you have the ability to completely avoid catastrophic mistakes and failures, then you probably don’t need to be reading my blog, or any blog for that matter.

If you’re like the rest of us, however, there simply no replacement for the lessons that come in the wake of a disaster. Some of my most powerful and longest-lasting lessons have come from cataclysmic failures and embarrassments.

The memory serves two purposes that are equally important: 1) a strong incentive to figure out things the next time and 2) a reminder that failure (even mortifying, gut-wrenching failure) does not result in sudden death and excommunication.

Not usually, anyway.