There can be a bright side to getting fired

When you are fired, you are rejected — it's as simple as that. It's the end of the road for that job. But it might put you on the superhighway to the Super Bowl!

Look no further than Gary Kubiak. He was fired as head coach of the NFL's Houston Texans in the middle of the 2013 season, when the team won only two of 16 games. If you had predicted that less than two years later, he would coach the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl championship, people would think you were delusional. But good things happen to people with experience who continue to work on improvement.

Professional sports and the business world are filled with stories of people who got second, third, fourth and more chances. That's because there is no substitute for experience.

Kubiak also exhibited a strong leadership trait in loyalty. He brought seven assistant coaches from his previous head-coaching job in Houston with him to Denver, and he also signed a few players who were cut from his previous team after he left.

It's interesting that the two competing coaches in last year's Super Bowl — Bill Belichick of New England and Pete Carroll of Seattle — were both fired from previous jobs as well.

I interviewed Bill Belichick for my 2004 book "We Got Fired! … and It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Us." Belichick was axed by the Cleveland Browns after the 1995 season and became head coach of the New England Patriots in 2000, after Carroll had the job for three seasons and was fired.

Belichick said: "I think every game, every week, every year is a great experience. I'd say I've learned every year I've been in the league no matter what capacity it's been in. Hopefully I'll keep learning." And this from one of only two NFL coaches with four Super Bowl championships.

Kubiak also said he has learned to delegate more and not be a control freak, as he was in his previous job. He empowered veteran players to make decisions and impose team policy. It helps that he inherited a veteran team, including his quarterback, Peyton Manning.

Yes, the same Peyton Manning who won a Super Bowl in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts and was also later "fired" when the Colts were able to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

For the rest of us, getting fired may not be as public an affair. So it's important to figure out why you were fired. Most people are mistaken in their beliefs about why they lost their jobs. Some will say that they're failures, others that their boss had it in for them, and others that they were sure their career ended because of a faux pas they made at the company picnic.

Often, firing is a straightforward cost-cutting measure. When you're fired, it's easy to weave fantasies and imagine villains. But if you are going to spend even an hour feeling miserable, make sure that you are miserable for the right reason.

Tony Dungy is another Super Bowl-winning coach who was fired. He coached the Indianapolis Colts to the 2007 championship after being fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dungy said: "When I got my first head coaching job at 40 years old, I thought I was ready. I was shocked at how much better I was at 47."

Mackay's Moral: The way to douse a firing is to use what you have learned for an even better hiring.