Reflecting on the past Summer Olympics, I can’t help but ponder how I have a lot in common with the 95 percent of Olympic athletes who lose: we both know how to learn from failure and return again and again.

My failures might leave the town safety inspector sobbing in the driveway, but I learn something from each and every one and, like an Olympian, I never give up.

Hall of Fame football coach Mike Ditka once said, “Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal.” Obviously, he’s never seen me do electrical work, during which I traditionally hum my working-with-high-voltage anthem, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees.

Like a surgeon, I once delicately approached a live electrical panel with a metal screwdriver, in complete violation of every electrical code ever written.

In spite of such near-death buffoonery, I had successfully wired the entire house myself, so I was no stranger to live wires.

However, I am not a licensed electrician, mainly because the governing agency doesn’t take bribes. On this day, I had one little ground wire to tighten in a hot panel (“Staying alive, stayin’ alive…”) and didn’t want to shut down the whole house.

Suddenly, Blam! The screwdriver was blown out of my hand and across the basement. Though I had failed to follow safe procedures, I learned something important from this: never stand directly in front of an electrical panel when flirting with high voltage.

Diversity being the spice of life, my learning curve isn’t limited to electrical work. I once cut a tall tree down, obliterating my above-ground swimming pool.

A failure, to be sure, but I rebounded by convincing my insurance company it was an act of God. This educational moment taught me the fickleness of tall trees and how to fool insurance companies, but I also learned something about my wife that day and it was good.

In a hurry to fix a leak, I removed a bath sink faucet before shutting off the water. It is amazing how quickly a solid stream of hot water can drill through a drywall ceiling and how fast I can move, given proper incentive. I learned how to plan properly and how to patch drywall.

The circuit panel altercation occurred over 30 years ago, yet, in my never ending quest to learn through failure, I recently needed to replace an electrical outlet next to our bathroom sink (“Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…”).

The box also held a switch for lights. I shut down power to the area. The receptacle was dead and the light was out. Wrestling with the outlet as it hung by its wires, my screwdriver touched something, bringing the box alive. There was a loud pop as sparks and debris flew out of the box.

One of the wires was still hot. I had failed to check completely. I may be a slow learner, but on the bright side, I’m still a living and breathing slow learner.

Working gingerly to avoid physical disfigurement, I finished the job without incident and learned an important lesson.

Olympic athletes and I both know you only fail if you quit at the first failure. Persevere and you’ll find that failure, in any life endeavor, is relative, ephemeral, temporary.

Sir Winston Churchill said “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

That’s makes mine a success story. Indeed, I’ve learned a lot from failure.

The key, of course, is stayin’ alive.

John Steward, who lives in Waterford, can be reached at tossinglines@gmail.com.