I had a friend ask me recently if I had any regrets in my life. I had to chuckle a bit and say, “Yes, I have had a ton of them.” I won’t attempt to go through the list here. I don’t think we have enough time or nearly enough ink to go through the entire list. I will simply say the list is quite lengthy. But, even though there are regrets and mistakes made along the way, I can honestly say they were not wasted, or I hope they were not wasted. My father was fond of asking a simple question after I had made some mistake and he took a step back and allowed me to suffer the consequences of those errant decisions. He would then simply ask, “Well, Rickey, did you learn anything?” With that in mind, I don’t think any experience, or decision for that matter, is completely without merit; as long as something is learned.
This friend told me about another friend of hers who regretted not going into some certain business. That made me think about something. Of all the things we may have regrets about, I think the biggest, and probably the saddest, regret is the regret over the things we didn’t do. As I look back on my 64 trips around that big ball of gas in the sky, I can say some of the decisions I have made were not the wisest, although they may have seemed like a good idea at the time. But, I can also say that, even though some things may not have worked out exactly as I had envisioned them, the regret of not taking those chances is not in the mix.