Lucille Harper, a 20th-century American writer, left us this wry reflection. Time heals wounds, yes — but it doesn’t erase them. For business owners, that translates into a lesson about mistakes, growth, and responsibility. You can recover from missteps, but you can’t pretend they never happened.
When I made my first bad hire, it took months to untangle the consequences. The emotional fallout, the lost productivity — time eventually healed the frustration, but it couldn’t undo the damage. Harper’s line reminds me that time softens pain but doesn’t rewrite history. That’s why swift correction matters.
A frequent pitfall is waiting for problems to “sort themselves out.” They rarely do. Whether it’s a poor system, a strained client relationship, or financial leakage, delay only deepens the mark. Addressing issues early might sting, but it prevents scars.
Another danger is refusing to learn. Time passes, but wisdom isn’t automatic — it requires reflection. After every failure, I debrief: what caused it, what could prevent it, what lesson can I carry forward? That’s how time becomes a healer and a teacher.
Harper’s humor hides a deep truth. Time forgives but doesn’t forget. Our responsibility as business owners is to use its healing power while preventing repeat wounds. Mistakes fade, but lessons endure — and that’s what makes experience beautiful, even if time itself isn’t.