I don’t know about you, but at the end of the day, Tiger is still the golf genius child-protégé he was to me a few months before all the scandal. Really, how many of us actually care about his ‘issues’ with remaining loyal to his wife. I know, many of you are probably aghast at what I (a woman!) am saying right now. However, the truth is the truth. We’re not mad at his recent apology because we think he hasn’t suffered enough for his wrongdoing, we’re mad because deep in the depths of our psyche we know that once he gets back to focusing on the game, we will all, once again, be enthralled with this genius of a player. End of story, enough said, hope all that personal life stuff of his works out. So why all the hoopla?

It’s a simple distraction, and an entertaining one at that. It’s also the tale of a mistake, maybe a big one, maybe a small one, time will tell (I err on the side of the later). We think that in order to succeed, we need to avoid making mistakes. This could not be farther from the truth. In fact, mistakes are a wonderful thing. They cause pause. They encourage us to reevaluate and rethink. They enable us to review what might be missing and how we can fill in and improve the next time around. Mistakes bring us back to our motivational behavior that encouraged the activity or venture in the first place.

And in some cases, we learn exponentially from the mistakes of others. The Olympics are the most awesome example of exactly that – motivation that spurs from mistakes. If anyone saw Apolo Ohno take home a bronze medal in the men’s 1,000 meter short track over the weekend you know just what I mean. Oh the sight, with Ohno whipping into 3rd position seconds before the finish and the announcer most appropriately stating “you’ve got to wait for the mistake and then make your move.”

Make your moves, learn from your mistakes, and certainly learn from the mistakes of others.