It’s not like I was out there searching or anything but I found a quote that could be the official motto for Breaking Murphy’s Law:

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Pretty good, isn’t it. I came across it on Bob Sutton’s blog Work Matters.  The post it’s from contrasts the philosophy that informs Eleanor’s quote with the idea that your own failures are the best teachers. Your failures are the teachers that smack your knuckles really hard with the ruler. Your failures are the teachers that firmly believe in corporal punishment.

I agree that personal failures are very good at teaching important lessons in a way that makes them difficult to forget. The only problem is there’s usually only one person in the classroom.

Learn from your mistakes, but also be generous and share them so others can learn from what you went through.

I know, I know, easier said than done. Just try to remember you could be saving someone else from geting their knuckles rapped.