So you made a mistake...

Back when I was in my early twenties, I was managing an automotive store and garage for Goodyear when they leased the space in Woolco Department Stores.  If you remember that name, you realise I am not in my twenties anymore!
As a manager I was responsible for the staff, the garage, the inventory and some of the promotional ideas.
Every two weeks I had to place a tire order to Goodyear for our stock to cover sales and events.
One of these times I screwed up and placed the same order 3 times in the same day.
A week later the truck came, I was expecting around 100 tires.  They kept coming and coming until there were over 300 tires plus the 100 or so I already had.
I could not send them back and the store which had to carry the inventory until it sold was at a high "freak-out" level.
I needed to move at least 250 tires in 2 weeks.  I did not panic, at least not on the outside, I led them to believe I wanted that order and we would clear them out.
I called in all the staff, I made a couple of posters that I put up in the back rooms and office announcing a contest.
The staff member who could sell the most tires would win a bucket of cold hard cash, beer and chicken wings and a date with Tanya Tucker, most of the guys were country fans and she was a hot prospect at the time!
We pushed promoted and gave "special deals" until we cleared out the stock.
Everyone was happy, the inventory was gone, we had sold it all at good margins and had gained a lot of new customers.
The young guy who was one of the assistant managers won the contest.  No one knew what to expect, but I took all of the staff out for beer and chicken wings, I gave the winner a bucket of frozen coins, about $30.00 in cold,hard,cash, and everyone had such a blast that they forgave me for not bringing them Tanya Tucker, although I tried to pass off a few other girls I introduced them to as her, we all had a great time and everyone came out feeling good about the whole experience.

I tell this story as this was not my first big mistake, but it was the first one that I was going to be held feet to the fire for so it was one that sticks with me, and it all worked out.
There were several side benefits to the screw-up.
1- We all started to work better together after that bit of bonding.
2- We gained some new customers as the promoting we did helped bring in people who might not have come our way.
3- We all had some fun that gave us something to talk about for some time to come.
So you make a mistake, ask where can you take that mistake to turn it into a positive.  You might surprise yourself if you relax for a minute and think just in solutions, you will be surprised.