📸 Family pic on Day 1 of Australian Open 2025
“We are all works in progress… Those were not particularly appealing words I used to describe the journey: Uncertain. Unpredictable. Destabilizing. Scary.
But other words describe it just as surely: Fun. Exhilarating. Exciting. Rewarding. They show the other side of a balanced equation.
“Just as resistance generates muscles, working through our worst experiences generates joy. The challenges we encounter are no reason to quit the journey. They provide occasions to seek wisdom and strength to continue.”
~ Bob Buford, author, Finishing Well
Last month, we visited our son who’s based in Melbourne and were able to watch the Australian Open in-person, our first Grand Slam experience as a family!
As the top tennis players competed and showed their physical and mental strengths and powers – we cheered, got emotional and were filled with awe. We applauded both the winners and losers.
Each player has a story and journey to share, and in some ways, they have already conquered many challenges through their respective journeys and have won, even before they competed in Melbourne.
My Failure-to-Winning Story. In 2014, we exited an entrepreneurial venture but I gained immensely valuable upsides:
💡First, it accelerated my growth as a business person, as I learned first-hand, the criticality of alignment of vision and values, and the convergence of passion and performance to financially succeed. These have empowered my business skills, which I get to apply on our current venture.
💡Second, I believe the experience made me a wiser and better person. The perspectives I gained were so much wider and deeper. As the business was in the food retail sector, everyday was a lesson on the value of consistent quality service and excellence. The experiences were challenging, humbling and enlightening.
💡Third, the journey to fulfilling a dream “to have our cake and coffee shop” was rewarding, even if in the end, we operated for just two years and was not financially successful. It was about dreaming and making it happen.
Have you experienced a failure that you viewed as an upside? What was your most valuable upside or gain from that experience?