“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes” observed Mahatma Gandhi.

Actually, I think that mistakes get a bad rap most of the time. Our society places a very high value on success however what is a success but rising above the failures and screw-ups in our lives? I myself lived through a tortuous screw-up in my life and although I paid the ultimate price, I needed to learn from it.

There are those who believe that you can never (and should never, truth be told) recover from those mistakes and will constantly remind you of them. You will find those that judge you usually are devoid of the facts, the minutia, the intricacies that caused the mess up in the first place. Personally, I was the captain of the ship with my firm and ultimately, I became responsible for what went on with a few employees that went rogue. In the future, you can look for my account of what transpired with my company but for now, let’s just say that I learned some very valuable lessons through the experience.

But without personal mistakes, how do you learn what not to do? Yes, they can be VERY painful (I know) but what are the alternatives? Giving up? Quitting? Depression? Stagnation? Poverty? These are all very common outcomes for some, maybe even many, who have met with failure in a nuclear way.

Most of us have an inner monologue that continues to run throughout the day, however too many listen to the negatives and not the positives. Truth be told if someone talked to you the way you (maybe) talk to yourself you would never speak to them again! In my book “Unchained and Unbroken” I wrote about mistakes – more than a few times. Allow me to put forth an excerpt:
"Each of us has heard stories, read about, or even personally known someone who faced overwhelming hardship and not only emerged on the other side but became massively successful.

Being successful, by the way, does not always involve having a lot of money. Certainly, money needs to freely revolve around your life experience, but in and of itself, a crinkled piece of green paper or even a steamer trunk full of it doesn't kiss you back and it sure doesn't love you back either.
Success is love. Love is what endures.....

Countless books have been written about motivation, persistence, about becoming better than you've been. Whether you're sitting at dialysis, at the unemployment line, at the dining room table, or at a cabana on the beach, everyone wants to know that through it all they will be better off tomorrow than they are today. How do we achieve that? How does someone arrive at a place and is able to say, "I'm good!" As I see it, it's learning from our mistakes, learning from another person's mistakes, recalling the achievements we've made, learning how others have achieved, and finally never, ever giving up — which in the end is not only gratifying but empowering.....”

Pay attention to your mistakes. Gain wisdom from them. Allow those mistakes to set you up to become your masterpiece.