“We don’t take credit cards, only cash.”
It was November 2009, and I was locked into a project to improve our house in several ways to prepare for our third child.
As with most home projects, reality quickly surpassed our budget. That was OK. I was going to use my credit card. Nevermind that I promised myself I would never use it in this manner…this totally frivolous remodeling project was an emergency! I would pay it off, I promised. I just needed to get through this.
My plumber dug a hole in our foundation, extended the toilet drain to what would be the shower, and charged me a hefty sum to do it.
And he only took cash.
As did the tile people and the painter. Crap.
The inevitable occurred. I overdrafted our checking account and and this led to several other bad events that took us a few weeks to get out of.
My wife and I awoke to how totally out of control and useless our current financial system had been. Some major changes were on the horizon. But these changes had a beginning in failure. At the time failure seems so terrible, so awful, that nothing good can come out of it. But in reality failure is often a catalyst for change.
| When you fail by | it is the catalyst for |
|---|---|
| losing your job | putting yourself on the right path to meet your goals, with the options wide open |
| a marital separation or affair | finding or abandoning your true commitment to that person, which means there will no longer be a lukewarm relationship |
| a project failure at work | understanding what will not work, so you can pursue what will work either for you or your organization |
| a bad health checkup visit | reanalyzing your relationship with food and an active lifestyle and making changes |
Failure feels terrible at the moment, but it really is a wonderful blessing because it is the only catalyst I know of for real success. I haven’t yet been able to believe this enough to make failure suck any less, but it sure is nice to know while I’m going through it.