Have you ever had a setback, a defeat, a screw-up? Have you ever snatched failure from the jaws of success?

Playwright Oscar Wilde once commented after a disastrous opening night that his play was a great success but the audience was a failure. That’s one way of handling defeat, I guess.

Winston Churchill had that same ability to spin a setback a setback into something else. He was once asked, “What most prepared you to lead England through World War II?”

His reply? “It was the time I repeated a class in grade school.”

His questioner then asked: “You mean you flunked a grade?”

Winston Churchill straightened himself up to his full height and replied: “I never flunked in my life. I was given a second opportunity to get it right!” (1)

That’s the way to handle a defeat look at it as a se…