We all fail, from time to time. Not everything in life goes smoothly. That’s normal. That’s life. The question is, how do we respond to a set-back?

Once, I applied for a job at a very upmarket London retail store. I was offered an interview, and the first step of the interview process was a group interview, complete with presentations. I was a little bit late (thanks trains!), but proceeded to knock the first part of the process out of the park. The presentations were about technology, and virtually everyone spoke about mobile phones, and virtually everyone read from notes. Not me.

I decided early on that I wanted to be different. I wanted to stand out. My presentation was about TVs, and whilst I had written stuff down, I learned it (to a point) and spoke without pausing to read my notes. I think that might have been what got me a second interview, which was a one-on-one (well, two-on-one) a short time later. Alas, I did not quite do enough to proceed to the third and final formality of a stage.

I was a bit gutted at the time. This job would have been quite the amazing note on a CV. That said, travelling to London every day, on packed trains, complete with various weather-driven problems, delays, strikes etc, would have quickly drained me. I ended up embarking on a different journey, through bathroom sales, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in that industry (so much so, that after a two-year spell selling sofas, I jumped at the chance to return to it).

So, I failed to land this ‘dream’ job, but I wound up somewhere good, where I could feel content. I’d call that a win!