Thought for the Day – Experience is the Best Teacher On numerous occasions, I remember my mother saying “Experience is the Best Teacher.” I did a little digging and found that the great Roman leader Julius Caesar recorded the earliest known version of this proverb, "Experience is the teacher of all things," (c. 52 B.C.). But my favorite rendition of this expression is from the J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” where he penned these words that I have quoted over and over… “The burned hand teaches best. After that, advice about fire goes to the heart.” I am a firm believer that “the burned hand teaches best,” experience; especially the mistakes are the best teachers. I have learned far more from my failures then I ever did from my successes. I think that is because, when embarrassment, disappointments or pain happens in our lives, the brain registers, and remembers that emotion much clearer that our greatest victory. Mistakes and failures are going to happen, and sometimes we may have to take a couple steps back, regroup in order to move forward again, but the key is, don’t miss this…that if we learn from our “burned hand,” we will end up becoming far wiser and stronger had the failure never happened! The question is, what will you do when failure happens?