New career, old problem: Learning from 'things gone wrong'

Escalating pressures for self-development require people of all ages to possess increasingly sophisticated levels of self-knowledge. From a career planning perspective, this means knowing more about one's strengths and weaknesses. Although some people acquire knowledge about themselves from instruments and assessment processes, many more look to their personal histories, including career histories, for evidence confirming competence. Research examining failures and setbacks recalled by a diverse sample of artists, athletes and business people is reported. It is concluded that people often hold distorted interpretations of life's disappointments, underscoring the need for informed guidance