In 1995, Pete Carroll was fired from his job as the coach of the New York Jets. He would say that his first reaction was disbelief. That it had happened. Why it happened. That it could have happened. But his second reaction was much more Stoic: “This might be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Indeed, it was. In the years after, he would go on to become one of the most renowned football coaches, one of the few who have won both a Super Bowl and a college football national championship. In fact, it wasn’t even until 2000, as the coach of USC, some 27 years into his career, that he discovered his coaching philosophy. That’s his description by the way. Put aside all the trophies he won after. If Pete Carroll hadn’t gotten fired, he might have just drifted as a coach, not even discovering the philosophy that allowed him to coach at his best.

Seneca would say that the wise man “dyes events with his own color.” That’s what Coach Carroll did. But unexpected events dye us with their own color too—often colors we never would have thought possible. So remember that: Because what happens today might be the best thing that ever happened to you. Even if at first it shocks you with disbelief.