Anyway, so we’re having dinner and then in walks this well-dressed Italian man. He sat down and then it hit me – I know this guy.

Actually, he’s a big douche bag!

I remembered his face because he was the owner of the very first restaurant I ever bartended at. Yes, I used to bartend way back in the day.

Anyway, I recall that he was not a nice man – not by a long shot. He would come in after the kitchen was closed and order people around and yell at people who weren’t doing things HIS WAY.

Since it was my first bartending job, I could barely even open a bottle of wine or make a proper espresso. I can’t tell you how many bottles of wine I wasted because of breaking off the cork. Oh well.

At the same time, my idea of an espresso was pale brown water. Not an espresso by a long shot.

I’ve come a long way since those days. And that’s why I wanted to write about going from failure to success.

In fact, that’s the only way success comes about. You need to make mistakes and learn from them. That’s how I did it. That’s how anyone from the beginning of time has done it as well.

No one is born with all the answers. We learn as we go. And we grow in the process.

Tony Robbins has a great saying that goes, “Every master was once a disaster.”

That is so true.

Nowadays, opening a bottle of wine is easy as tying my shoes. Making a great espresso is something I actually enjoy doing. But remember, I was terrible at first.

I remember getting butterflies in my stomach if a large party came into the restaurant because I knew they would be ordering wine and most likely espressos for dessert.

I’m sure you can think of hundreds of similar situations in your own life.

Feel free to share your “failure-to-success” stories in the comments. I’d love to hear them