When was the last time you failed? I don't mean a little mistake. When was the last time you experienced a bona-fide, gut-wrenching, FUBAR failure? I used to be afraid to fail. I think I spent much of my twenties and my early thirties trying hard not to fail. Back then, I had serious perfectionist tendencies and worked hard not to make a mistake.  I look back at how naive I was then. As much success as I've encountered in my career since those early days, I sometimes wonder how much further I'd be if I'd allowed myself to embrace and learn from my failures earlier in life. I started thinking about failure when the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review arrived in my mailbox. The entire issue is dedicated to the topic of failure -recognizing it, learning from it and recovering from it.

My own turning point with failure finally came when I was working as an expatriate in Shanghai, China  as a PR agency executive nearly 10 years ago. Click to read more and share your thoughts  www.bossmomonline.com