Everyone strives for perfection, but it’s also important to accept that you’re bound to make a few mistakes. What makes the mark of a good person is when they learn from their mistakes and use it as an opportunity for growth.
Even someone as successful and talented as Michael Landon has made his fair share of mistakes. Landon was brave enough to share those mistakes with The San Bernardino County Sun in an interview. The Bonanza actor confessed that he went through a period where he acted like a “spoiled child.” However, when Landon gained a better perspective on his misgivings, he understood that his issues didn’t lie in his professional life; they were in his personal life.
Landon said, “I know now that I was behaving as I did at work because I was unhappy with my personal life.” Landon was also forced to take stock of his life and reorganize his priorities, as the actor said, “I tried to depend on work for my happiness — and that’s walking on very happiness — and that’s walking on very thin ice. It doesn’t work that way.”
Luckily, Landon was able to use this opportunity for growth to his advantage, taking the passion that once fueled his “spoiled child” phase to make him an incredibly assertive and impressive businessman.
He reasoned, “You’ve got to know what you’re demanding, why you’re demanding it — and who you are.”
Ultimately, it seemed that one of the greatest lessons that Landon learned was to put work, not family, first in his life. In an interview with the Boca Raton News, Landon confessed, “I just want to work hard and go home happy. I have six children between the ages of twenty-four and two years old. And the most important thing is not what I do for a living. My important goals all have to do with my family, not my Neilsen ratings.”