Punch in the nose

This past week I was having a conversation with a business partner, who is also a friend.  We talked about some of the things we did in our past and whether we regretted doing them.  He had spent the better part of three years building up a company and has since left it but he kept some ownership in the company.  He has since concentrated on his commercial real estate company. 

He spent some time saying if he had focused on his real estate company how much further financially he would be ahead.  I told him that if he did not spend the time building up the other business he would not have gained some of the skills he has now.   I told him it is like getting punched in the nose when you are sparing.  You can feel the pain and not learn from it or you can feel the pain say I don't want that to happen and learn from the experience.  He liked the analogy. 

We both came to the conclusion that no matter what happened in our past as long as we learned from it and incorporated the lessons into our lives we were winning.