What do well-known and wealthy celebrities and leaders like Mark Cuban, Walt Disney, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, Anna Wintour, Oprah, Madonna, Lee Iacocca and Coach Bill Belichick have in common? Before all of them became famous, successful and wealthy, they each experienced the same thing. They were fired. Former President Trump made a trademark of the phrase, “You’re fired!” on his TV show The Apprentice. Millions tuned in each week to see him boot the low performer from the competition.

There’s a certain stigma attached to being fired for up-and-coming leaders as the ultimate mark of failure. But being fired is something you can learn and grow from. And often someone who has been fired will later realize they did nothing wrong. As Liz Ryan writes for Forbes, “Getting fired is not a mark of shame, although some people think it is. It is easy to get fired for doing your job too well or for having better ideas than the boss has. If your boss doesn't like being upstaged, that's it for you!  You could be out the door tomorrow. Maybe there was a time in history when only terrible employees got terminated, but I doubt it. Certainly in the thirty-plus years I've been working I have seen many smart, enthusiastic and upright people get fired. They didn't appreciate it at the time, but getting fired taught them valuable life lessons.” So, what can you learn from being fired?

Be ready for change. Few things in life are constant and predictable. Savvy leaders learn to adapt and be ready from the unexpected. Being fired will mean changing jobs, bosses, companies, responsibilities, salary and benefits. It may mean changing location, schedules or much more. A job termination is a stark reminder that work is often simply a means to provide and not necessarily an investment in your future.

Isaiah 43:19 reminds us, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” For something new to happen in life and work, something old may have to end. Being ready for change means turning from the end and looking toward the next beginning.

M. Scott Peck said, “The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

Don’t forget who you are. A person can get fired for cause, or by circumstance. In either case, though, it’s an opportunity to remember who you are, what makes you unique and of value. If fired for cause, consider the reason, and how you might change your behavior in the future and avoid the wrongs that brought you to the end of a job. If an outside circumstance, think about how God might use this transition to better utilize your skills and abilities. There’s an opening to recommit yourself to being at your very best, to wipe the slate clean and start again with superlative effort. A Christ-follower can claim the promise of God in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” If Christ has made you new spiritually, then He is certainly capable of renewing your life and work professionally.

Tim Tebow said, “When you try to be a role model, not everybody can relate to some of your highs—awards, championships. But everybody can relate to the lows. Everybody's gotten fired from a job or gotten cut. People learn more about you in those lows than they do in the highs.” Not only will others learn about you through the experience of being fired, you will have a golden opening to learn about yourself.

Get up and move on. Being fired brings a temptation to sulk, get depressed and crawl into a hole. Most successful leaders, though, will tell you that failure and rejection are the first steps in long-term success. A firing is only a failure, though, if you don’t move on from it. So take a minute (or a day), then pick yourself up. Resolve to move to the next opportunity. Take stock of what you have and develop a plan. Get advice from people you trust. And here’s one many don’t think about: pray. Ask God to direct your steps forward.

Isaiah 43:18 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” This is a theme repeated several times in Scripture. Also encouraging is what happens when we depend on God for our strength and direction. Isaiah 43:31 promises, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Interestingly, former Apple chief Steve Jobs once said, “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”