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It all started back in May when my 5 year-old ran inside the house yelling, "Mom, Bethany's lips are blue!!!"

I heard the intense panic in his voice all the way upstairs in my office and I went numb. I'm not sure my feet even touched the floor as I flew down the stairs and out to the backyard with one intention: to see my three year-old well.

My now eight year-old was by the side of the pool with her, having discovered her floating face-down in the deep end. He had already pulled her out all by himself and was waiting for me, hoping I could make everything all better.

She lay there, lifeless. Lips blue, no heartbeat, and not breathing. My nine year-old daughter was standing, crying, and I yelled at her to call 911. She froze, feeling the weight of the seriousness of the situation. "Call 911! CALL 911!!!" I yelled again and again until she finally began to run inside.

I had failed to keep my three year-old safe from this tragedy. Even though I had been successful at teaching her how to swim, on that day I failed to be watchful enough.

Subconscious programming took over. My first instinct was to pick my little girl up and lay her over my knee, upside down, as I patted her back. That's what I've done for 15 years whenever my babies had trouble breathing . . . but of course it didn't work, because she wasn't choking. There again, I failed. I had one intention in mind: to see her well, and I made a mistake. I did the wrong thing. I failed.

Immediately I turned her over and laid her down again, letting her head hit the deck too hard in my frantic effort to try something else. I blundered again. I hurt her in an effort to help her. I made a mistake. My intention was to see her well, but I failed again.

If she were awake, she may have complained that I had hurt her head. But there was no response. How I would have rejoiced to hear her complain!

Get oxygen to her brain; that's what I had to do. But I haven't had CPR training since 1991. All those detailed, systematic instructions of what to do were forgotten in this moment. All I knew is that she needed oxygen to her brain until the paramedics showed up. I put my mouth over hers and gave her a breath. But it didn't do anything except come rushing out of her nose. Again, I made a mistake. I failed. But at least it helped me remember that I needed to plug her nose.

So the next time, I plugged her nose, gave her a breath and it filled her chest. Common sense told me that it wasn't her chest that needed the oxygen, it was her brain . . . and since her silent heart was designed to do the job, I gave her three or four chest compressions, and another breath. Another round of compressions, and she finally began to revive.

She spent the night in the hospital and gratefully, she completely recovered. There were, of course, lessons to be learned from this horrific experience. A shallow lesson learned was to be more watchful. Anyone could have learned that lesson. A deeper lesson was to really comprehend on a whole new level how nothing material matters, so long as our family is in tact.

But a few months later, as I sat in a hotel room finishing up the creation of our 12-week home study course, I had an even deeper epiphany which has led me to conclude that I was meant to experience all of our financial setbacks as well as this incident with my daughter to learn a fundamental, universal truth that I had never really grasped before. I thought back to some of our flopped investments, and then I thought about my daughter. It was then that I realized this:

We all make mistakes. With good intentions we sometimes fail. Nobody achieves success at remarkable levels without experiencing some failure along the way. How we respond to failure is really what determines whether or not we deserve to enjoy success.

We must learn from our mistakes and press on. How many times did I fail with my daughter? I failed time and time again.

How stupid it would have been to stop even for a second to bemoan my failure!!! There was no time to stop and beat myself up!!! Her life was on the line, and each failure provided valuable feedback to help me eventually get it right. If I had stopped to think about "poor me," I could have missed the window of time that decides whether she lives or dies, is handicapped or well.

Financial mistakes are no different. If you've experienced a few and are having trouble picking yourself up again, remember that your financial life is on the line. Take too long to bemoan your mistakes, pointing blame at others, and it could literally mean financial death or long-term handicap for you. It's time to take a deep breath, take personal responsibility for where you're at, learn from the experience, and get busy creating again. When one door closes, another one always opens. But we'll only find it if we stop looking so longingly at the door that closed.

For more insight, visit ProsperYourFamily.com.