Dan Rhodes met Dave Thomas long before Thomas opened his first Wendy’s. Rhodes admitted he always knew young Thomas would 'someday be something big,' but still, given an opportunity to invest in Wendy’s - he didn’t. Later, he met Colonel Sanders and had a chance to buy his stock before it went public. But he turned down that opportunity too, because he didn’t agree with some of the Colonel’s ideas. When he was in the restaurant business, Rhodes often had a salesman named Ray Kroc in his office trying to sell him equipment. Rhodes admits that Kroc was a nice guy; however, he chose not to invest in his little hamburger joint - McDonalds! A few years later, on an Alaskan cruise, he met an attorney from Seattle who suggested that Rhodes invest in his son’s new computer company. It had a funny name - Microsoft! Again Rhodes declined. Now most of us would be pulling our hair out if we missed even one of those opportunities, but not Rhodes. He learned from his mistakes, kept pursuing his dream and eventually saw his name on Forbes Magazine’s list of the 400 most successful business owners in America. Start seeing your failures as an investment in further knowledge. You paid too much to get where you are and understand what you know, to quit now. Each time you plan, risk, fail, re-evaluate and adjust, you get another opportunity to begin again - only better than the last time!