During my career in the past years, I've been fired a few times. The last time was about five years ago.
At the time, I co-owned a literary agency. I agreed to take on a giant project for a major client. I worked my tail off about a year, focusing just on this one client. Meanwhile my partner and associates took care of everyone else. We all thought it was a good bet. But in the end, the client fired me and cooperated with an agency who promised to get him a major book deal with a New York publishing house and an appearance on Oprah. I was left high and dry with nothing to show for my year-long investment.
The worst part was that I did not see it coming. I thought I had done a great job, and we had enjoyed a long-term personal relationship. But my client had his eye on bigger things and decided I couldn't take him there, so he abandoned me without discussion.
The thing I finally learned from this experience was that clients and customers can be changeable. So never put all your eggs in one basket.
This wasn't the only mistake I'd made in my career. Some of the mistakes I had made got me fired. That got my attention and furthered my education in the school of hard knocks.
Chances are that you are going to be fired at some point in your career. Last May, 1.7 million workers in America were laid off or fired. And according to the Labor Department, that was during month of generally good economic news. The trick — after being fired — is to try to push bitterness aside and learn from it. Failure can be a great teacher, but we have to listen.
