Opportunity from Adversity

Home Depot success story started when the founders were both fired from their jobs leading a home center store.

They could have been bitter and spent years fighting for their lost compensation packages. Instead, they focused their efforts on creating an even better company than the one they had built for their previous employer.

They called the experience “getting kicked in the ass with a golden horseshoe.”

We have all been kicked in life. And work can deal a person lots of kicks. That might take the form of a lost client, a lost prospect, a career opportunity derailed, a key player leaving the team…any number of things.

The key is to get the right mindset and get back into it. The disappointment likely has a lot to teach you. The outcome may also open up alternatives that you had not considered. Sometimes kicks can get a person out of a rut. It might be just what they needed.

As Winston Churchill put it: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to persevere that counts.”

Been kicked? That’s part of life. Learn and look for the next opportunity.

That pain in your butt might have been a golden horseshoe.