The other day I watched a little girl, about three-years old, hold her father's hand as they prepared to cross the street. She had a cute pink T-shirt on with a little denim skirt topping her blinged-out pink cowboy boots. She danced a bit as she waited and then had to run in order to simply keep up with her father's footsteps as they crossed the street. She reminded me of my own daughters, now aged twenty-three and twenty-one. They both proudly wore bedazzled cowboy boots with fringe when they were little.

When I told my twenty-one year what I had seen and the memories it inspired, she looked squarely at me and said, "I don't remember having cowboy boots." I am not sure why but this saddened me. It seemed strange to me that she would forget, when the memories were so vivid for me. Especially since those boots had been so important to her and I remember endlessly shopping for the perfect pair. She and her sister wore them often and it was delightful.

She still shook her head without a memory stir. It was an interesting lesson for me as I often find myself straining to remember even the simplest things like why I even walked in the other room. Or why I opened a certain cupboard or what I was supposed to tell so-and-so. Memories and remembering play a huge role in what we can achieve. Bad history not repeating itself or figuring out what made good history good and how to relive it or make it happen again.

Life and business are filled with lessons. Should we learn from those lessons? Of course, easier said than done, though. I think we learn from what we refute, from what we disprove. It's kind of like the glass is half-full theory, instead of half-empty. In the process, when we recognize that the other half of the full may not be empty but rather only half understood, we get a grip on what is understood.

Each of us are at different places in that understanding. Not everyone is ready to accept the significance of pink cowboy boots versus white ones or whether or not cowboy boots are even appropriate footware. Sometimes, it doesn't matter what is appropriate, but rather what makes sense and what is accepted. When we can see past acceptance, we are able to successfully use good for good. Not always an easy thing. But then, who said it was easy?

by rayannethorn