Executive message: Jeremy Meredith—Embracing setbacks as learning opportunities

Would you believe you can learn life lessons from IT folks?

I’ve worked in IT for over 20 years, and I still love it. Truly. The work itself is rewarding, but it’s the people who have made the biggest impact. The individuals I’ve had the chance to collaborate with are people I genuinely admire and cherish. Many of them—quietly and humbly—are some of the most caring, brilliant, and creative minds I’ve ever met.

Yes, their technical skills are impressive. But what often gets overlooked is the life wisdom they carry with them—the kind that doesn’t show up in code reviews or system reports.

Among the best developers I’ve known, a few traits consistently rise to the top. One that always sticks with me: they treat problems as opportunities. Not just because they have to, but because they’re genuinely curious. They see challenges as stepping stones, not setbacks. Writing code is rarely smooth—it’s messy, layered, and full of unknowns. Bugs happen. Missteps happen. Rewrites happen. But instead of letting those moments frustrate them, they lean in. They learn. They adapt. And they keep going.

That mindset is gold, not just in IT, but in life.

No business or life path is free of mistakes. Pride can make us hide from them. Ego can make us deny them. But character—the kind I’ve seen in some of the best IT minds—chooses to grow from them. They don’t waste energy on shame. They build on what’s been learned and move forward.