You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Ellen, you’re mixing metaphors again.” And I am, sort of. But not really. Here’s the story:

This week, Steve McDonagh, one of The Hearty Boys, an RIA client, experienced what seemed, at the time at least, to be a terrible setback at his one-week-old restaurant. Some jerk broke his front window — a window that would take an entire week to special order.

“Gives a completely different feel to the inside of the resto for new guests and reviewers … so unfair,” he vented to me in an e-mail two days ago.

My advice to Steve: Make lemonade. His choice – and, really, the only choice all of us have when something goes wrong – was to whine and pout, or turn a loss into a win.

That was the extent of my advice. Steve stewed on it for about half a minute and figured out the rest for himself: His genius idea was to ask guests to “sign his cast.” At the end of their meal, he’s giving each table paper and markers to write what they love about the food, service, drinks, whatever. He’s taping these messages up where the window used to be, facing out onto the street, so passers-by can read the poor, broken window’s “cast.”

Frankly, I’m speechless at his creativity. Who the heck knew you could make such fantastic lemonade out of broken glass?