When I heard about Penny Pritzker as Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce, I immediately thought about the failure of the Superior Bank of Chicago.
Although Pritzker's done some very good things in her career, there is still that history behind her of a failed bank, which was due to sub-prime loans.
She at one time was at the Chairwoman of the bank. She stepped down in 1994. The bank failed in 2001, but Pritzer was still on the board.
The initial thought that went through my mind, was how could Obama choose someone who has this history?
The next thing that went through my mind, was how failure can be a good thing.
We learn from experience. If everything goes smooth and we are successful all the time, there is rarely a learning experience that comes with it.
Failure on the other hand provides us an opportunity. Why did we fail? What could we have done better? How can we avoid this next time? What could we have done to make this a success?
So... I think that Penny Pritzer might actually be a very good choice.
She certainly seems to have integrity, which is something that has been lacking in Washington and the banking industry. Her family did step up to the plate and paid the FDIC $460 million to defray the costs incurred by the goverment.