Years ago a client friend asked me to become the marketing director of an adult education school. I had never before had the opportunity to be on the ground floor of a business except for my own free lance design, so I jumped on the chance thinking that all the pieces would just somehow fit.

There were 4 of us. 1 assistant, who was the true "gal friday" every day of the week; myself as marketing director; one partner who was head of the computer classes and also the liaison between ourselves and the teachers, and finally the other partner who wanted little of the day to day work, but was the cash flow source. The computer teacher partner had worked for a previous adult education school which was a success for 16 years. We thought that gave him enough credibility and knowledge. We even had the full database from the former place and a list of their best teachers. We truly believed the proverbial thought that if we built it, and announced it a few times, they would flock to us the way they flocked to the former place. How wrong we were.

We never built the solid foundation, nor did the proper demographic studies, nor the psycho-graphic research of our students that would have been necessary to determine if the school was worth starting in the first place. We never researched the where it was, only picking its location due to availability. We took the "less is more" approach to advertising, and then hired a PR person based on emotion, not hard facts. The mistakes kept piling up as high as the debt.

After 2.5 years, I had enough of the traveling back and forth watching the debt mount and the student base lessen. I cut my ties and we parted ways. The school never made it and died out completely 4 months after I left.

A little while later, while making body scrub just for myself, I was prompted to start my body care company. I decided to take all I learned about starting a business and use it to my advantage. Everything that seemed to work, I kept, but all the mistakes I knew had been made I tossed out the door and used that information to change the way I ran this business. It was the best decision I could have made.

Yes, I still make plenty of mistakes and am continually learning more and more on a daily basis. I am just beginning the streamlining and standardizing process and am doing my best at combining the entrepreneur with the manager and the production staff. I have come so far and yet have so far to go. But, 3 years later and I still love it as much if not more. I believe I have only just begun to scratch the surface of its possibilities.

Many people to this day will still call my former business a disaster, but to me, it was the fastest "what to do and what not to do" business education I could ever have gotten. So I believe, that in anything you might do, if you learn from it, it wasn't a mistake.

I was lucky enough to combine business and pleasure this past week when I visited Atlanta. Not only did I make a great business connection, but I got to enjoy 2 very special friends as well.

One friend is someone I have known since birth and who has been an active part of my life for the better part of 47 years, give or take a few school and career building years. The other is a woman I met in '78 when we worked at the same summer camp.  We have also had our in's and out's of staying in touch over the past 31 years, due to relocation and family building.

What I loved experiencing with both of them, was the fact that the conversation picked up where it had left off.  With my oldest friend, it was only 2 months since our last visit, when she came up to NY. But with the other friend, it has been 16 years since we last saw each other face to face. It was as if no time had passed and only our children had grown up.

We laughed and shared like we always did at 16, at 26, and at 36!

Friends are in our lives for a myriad of reasons, a multitude of seasons or a veritable lifetime. It always warms my heart when I connect or re-connect with the lifetime friends, even if we missed a season or 64 of them.

Friendship....it's what enriches and enhances my life.