Being proactive doesn’t mean you are aggressive and pushy, or you do something before somebody else does. Being proactive means you are aware of your responsibility and ability to choose how you are going to act in certain situations. You are able to respond in a positive manner. When you decide to shift your focus from reactive to proactive behaviour, you choose your actions. But you need to be aware while you are free to choose your actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions. For example, you can decide to treat the customer well, but you still can’t decide if the customer will buy your product or not. There are going to be times when your actions, although positive, will lead to consequences you will not want or like – these are mistakes. You need to realize that your past mistakes are all in the Circle of concern, you don’t have any power over them anymore. The proactive approach to mistakes is to acknowledge them immediately, correct and learn from them. This way they won’t have any power over you, instead you will be empowered again. This is how you turn a failure into a success.