Some people are afraid to start cooking because they are afraid of failing. Most good cooks know that failure is how we learn. In fact, I’ve been cooking for most of my life. I am confident in the kitchen and things still go wrong. All the time. No one is immune to these mishaps.

It’s part of the growth process. The idea is to examine the situation and learn from it. In fact, it is possible to not only make the best of a potential disaster, but to also discover something completely unexpected.

Case in point: I am fond of chocolate chip cookies. For a while, I would mostly follow the Toll House recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. One day, I started out by following the recipe but ended up partially following another recipe on the bag. I caught it, and continued making the cookies anyway to see what would happen.

The result? The best chocolate chip cookies I ever had. I wrote down what I did and changed a few things around. Now, my cookies are uniquely different and extremely tasty. All because I didn’t panic during the error. I am making those cookies now, in tribute.