The powerful simplicity of this plate juggler moving from step-to-step until ready to perform in front of a large audience resonates so well with customer facing roles. On the first step you can see that many plates are broken, but as the act is tweaked and as problems are solved and new techniques are adopted, fewer and fewer plates are broken and the pinnacle is reached. I like the idea that the audience is sitting there the whole time. While on the lower stairs they only see a bit of the act, as confidence in the skills is gained more and more of the act is shown; the more value you are giving to them. This is the definition of professional development; provide more value by strengthening your existing skills and learning new ones. Not starting to juggle the plates because you are afraid of breaking them is the worst way to learn. Failure that includes learning isn’t failure at all; it’s growth. Our leaders should encourage us to learn from our failures, not avoid failure. So feel free to fail, but take time to learn why that failure occurred, and then move to the next step and start again.