When his company had a corner on the automobile market, Henry Ford once said, "Americans can have any color car they want, as long as it is black." As a result of this stubborn philosophy, within a very few short years, Ford lost his hold over the auto industry, until his company was willing to come into alignment with the changing needs of people. In the 1950's, Ford introduced the Edsel as a medium-priced alternative between the inexpensive Ford and the more costly Mercury. The Edsel, as we know now, was a major financial disaster. Yet out of the Edsel fiasco, the Ford researchers discovered a new market: Americans were no longer merely buying cars based on price— the cars had to fit certain lifestyle changes and aspirations. So out of the failed Edsel experiment, Ford developed the Thunderbird to appeal to an emerging American sports car consciousness. And the Thunderbird was one of the greatest successes in the auto industry. When we are open to learning through our apparent mistakes, we discover that the mistakes themselves can be the stepping stones to our success in life.