Return on Experience

 

In the business of life or in the life of a business we don't always get a positive Return-on-Investment from our expenditures of capital or resources. In spite of the best thought-out and well-executed plans, we can't always control the process or the result.

What is totally within our control is the R.O.E. or the "return on our experience" that we can deposit in the "bank of understanding".

Value is inherent in every event, all interactions, and each experience if only we look to take advantage of it. The lessons we learn and the wisdom we earn are totally up to us and at our disposal.

When I look back at my career and reflect on my life, sometimes the most valuable gifts I have received have come from the most difficult of times. Trials, tribulations, and even painful knocks-up-side-the-head have often led to my greatest progress. If I learn from a challenge, I can profit from a problem and get a positive return on my experience. Man, at times I wished it were easier and that I could have gotten the same level of growth without having had faced the dilemma that brought about the progress--but it is what it is and was what it was.

I take heart in knowing that I have the opportunity to make a different choice next time around, gained resources I didn't have before, and built strength in the knowledge that I can do better, be more, and make wiser decisions when faced with a similar circumstance. That, my friend is what life is about and in the business-of-life, a positive R.O.E is a guaranteed investment that always pays a positive dividend.

Since I'm not in the business of breaking-even—I think I'll make mine a ten-to-one return.

How about you?

 

Comments

[Mwangi]

I couldn't agree more. I don't remember the exact phrase I first heard but I'll paraphrase:

Wisdom is as a result of experience. Experience is the result of failure.

I definitely agree there are many ways to reframe or review a situation that some may say is negative - it might be one going through the process of elimination, you might gain empathy or sympathy or understanding of the struggles of people that you wouldn't have gained otherwise among other things.

An interesting idea that came out of synthesizing through the ideas of one theologian one day are:

The Bible says we were created in the image of our creator. Therefore it is our mission to create.

And the one area we have absolute control over what we create is in the mind.

I hope that wasn't too abstract and it added some further wisdom to your great article.