“We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.”

– Cicero, Roman statesman, and orator

“How?” he asked. “How could I have worked so hard yet have failed so utterly?”

I was speaking with a client about building self-esteem. I knew he had worked hard over the years to overcome a number of personal issues and to resurrect his badly damaged self-esteem. As of late, he had fallen into a deep depression and had grown increasingly despondent.

“What is it that you fear?” I asked, “more than anything else in the world?”

He looked at me for a few moments. “Mistakes. I fear to make mistakes.”

“And how do you feel when you make mistakes? Does it upset you?”

“Upset me...

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