One day at the beginning of February I committed myself to finish Bounce! by Barry J. Moltz because I had to–I’d just been fired. At the time I didn’t think anyone could relate more to his opening chapter than I did because it was as if my story was being told, except the names were changed to protect the innocent. There I was: 30 years old, married just two years, stuck with a brand new mortgage, and kicked to the curb with one month of severance pay to get on my own two feet… if only I could even comprehend what had happened.

I had failed. Failed as an employee (I guess), failed as a husband, and failed as a member of society. I was down in the dumps and later learned that I met more than enough criteria to be diagnosed with “major depression.” The eternal optimist, I started working on projects I had been dabbling on late into the night for friends and clients the very next day. I listened to the book every day, and with each shower, my business confidence grew and seemingly washed away old concerns.

There are so many good “take-aways” from Bounce! that this would be an article rather than a review to go over everything that impacted our life through the experiences and wisdom Barry poured into these pages. Here are the best bits that directly affected my day-to-day life after failure and my increasing confidence:

• Failure is not always your fault. Sometimes things just happen out of your control and there is nothing you could do to prevent, prepare for, or postpone every failure. People move, die, cheat. Companies fold, merge, and take you out. Failure will happen to everyone at some point.
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