A few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Barbara Corcoran, the rags-to-riches Grand Dame of New York City real estate, and hear her talk about how she built such a successful business. Her talks are always a fun mix of business knowledge and easy advice, as you’d expect from the author of If You Don’t Have Big Boobs, Put Ribbons In Your Pigtails: And Other Lessons I Learned From My Mom.

However, a comment he made during that speech has always stuck with me. He pointed out that the only difference between the most successful salespeople in his organization and the rest was not in the number of rejections, failures, or setbacks they faced, but in how quickly they bounced back and got back in the game.

I often think of Barbara’s comment during ice skating season, because it was shortly after we met that I was trying to teach my son to skate. Now my son is not what one would call a figure skating prodigy (no Olympic moments in our future) and our outings at the time used to consist of me holding him upright between my legs as we circled the rink until my back was weak.

But we were in Colorado visiting friends and we had the chance to skate outdoors on a lake where they rented not only skates but also hockey equipment. This was quite a change from being on a crowded MDC rink in Boston. Plus, with a stick gripped firmly in his talons for the first time and facing what seemed like acres of uninhabited ice, my son magically transformed from a timid, wary hand shuffler and timid, to mini-hockey player skating just to hit. the record with a young friend. While it wasn’t an Olympic moment, it certainly qualified as a Kodak moment.

Unfortunately, our combined joy, yours at finding a new skill; mine in being able to skate upright – he ended it prematurely when he was the unintentional recipient of an accidental high stick to the face. As I carried him to shore and put snow on his bleeding lip (relieved that there was no permanent damage or visits from the tooth fairy that night), I assured him that we could return our skates and head back to the lodge immediately.

But she only started crying harder, and it took me a few seconds to realize that the last thing she wanted to do was leave. So once the bleeding stopped, I did what any good hockey mom would do: I wiped away the dried blood, wiped away his tears, handed him the hockey stick, and sent him back across the lake.

When he reunited with his friend and play resumed, all I could think of (besides wondering where I could find him a hockey helmet with a face mask) was:

Airline tickets to Vail: $600.00

Ice skate and equipment rental: $12.00
Watching your child get up and get back in the game – priceless