The truth was I willfully screwed up. I gave other desperate people the opportunity to steal from me, and that was my fault, not theirs. Until I understood that fact, I was not taking any real responsibility. And until I took real responsibility , I could not take control of the process of recovery. I felt a lot of guilt at first, but I don't feel any now.
Failure is the most inalienable right in America.
Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln are two famous failures who finally realized great success. Risk is messy, and failure is the best teacher, if only because it effects your ability to eat. There is one more thing about guilt, and I see it in companies where the patriarch or matriarch of a family-owned business is trying to hold on to a failing organization. It has to do with the concept of the good society vs. the good business. Guilt causes too many family-owned businesses to hold on to too many people for too damn long when things go south.