The Right Way to Respond to Failure – Peter Bregman – Harvard Business Review. This is an excellent blog post by Peter Bregman. He tells the story of a friend’s daughter’s failure at a swimming meet and several adults’ responses. Mr. Bregman identifies the key factor — empathy — that is so critical as the first step when one seeks to respond to failure and start to develop trust for the long run. Most people jump to problem solving or advice giving after a failure or setback when the person who has had the failure or setback needs understanding and empathy more than anything else. There is plenty of time to give advice and problem solve; when there is a failure or setback, the best thing to do is acknowledge the frustration and disappointment.