It goes without saying that we all make errors in life however the most successful people do not let it get them down and try to treat these mistakes as a learning curve.

My parents taught me a lot of things about life and I clearly remember my father sitting me down when I was around fourteen years of age and speaking to me about this subject. He stated that he thought I was a decent person who knew right from wrong, he was however aware that I would make some mistakes. I was a person that had a speech imediment, commonly known as stuttering. I became street wise and mature at a far earlier stage than the majority of kids my age - this was no doubt in part due to having the stutter.

He continued that he would not ask me to come home by a certain point at night and that he would let me make my own choices. If I had made some sort of crazy error or decision; or perhaps I had acted in a wrong way he would just sit me down and say: OK now I am not particularly impressed with what you have done there son; he would then ask whether I also believed that what I had done was wrong etc. If I agreed, that would be the end of the matter, the problem would only occur if I then made the same mistake again as that would mean I had not learnt from the experience. He would then in his words, come down on me like a ton of bricks.

I agreed that this seemed fair and carried on living my life. I wondered what he had meant by the ton of bricks statement. I did make many mistakes and we had to have our chat on many occasions, I am happy to say that I did learn from my errors and never had to find out what he had meant.

I am somebody who loves playing sport. I am very competitive and do not like losing. I have had to accept that at times I will lose, however when I do I always ask myself a question, what could I have done differently today? What could I do differently next time I play to ensure the result is a positive one?

It is the same in business where I sell composite doors for a composite door company; I am always eager to try and reach that next level up.

I am very grateful to this lesson my parents taught me and hope that in the future my children will be thankful at the way I and their mother have raised them.

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