I’m the first to admit when I’ve made a mistake or failed. Well, not really. But eventually I’ll accept that I’ve messed up and will do what I can to fix it.

No one likes to fail or even plans to fail, but face it…failure is part of any business. Some folks welcome their failures and see them as battle scars, while others—I fall into this category—really hate to fail. But there’s always something good that can come out of failure. You just have to look for it.

If at first you don't succeed...

Products from Post-it notes to Silly Putty were deemed “failures” at the beginning, but we all know the rest is history. Before you write off a failure and create a ridiculous scheme to hide it, try to learn from your mistake. Why not see your failure from another point of view? You may even open your mind to new opportunities and future successes. It’s worth a try.

After you’ve thought about your mistake, move on. I finally started doing that and it’s very freeing. Dwelling on your mistake or obsessing over it does nothing more than give you indigestion and make you annoying to be around. Worrying about what you’ve done or forgotten to do won’t change the end result. But it can change the way you handle the situation in the future.

Failure doesn’t have to be negative. After all, without failure, success wouldn’t be so sweet.

Embrace failure as you would a good friend. Just don’t invite it to stay too long.