Instead he told me the following story about Sam Walton, the founder of a somewhat successful retail venture.
A newly hired executive had made a multi-million dollar mistake and he too was summoned to the corner office. Before Sam could get a word in, the executive said "Save the lecture and just fire me."
Sam studied the young executive for a few moments and replied "Fire you? I just invested millions of dollars in your education - you don't even get to resign".
Like Sam Walton's freshly minted executive, I learned an important lesson that day. Mistakes, even those of the multi-million dollar variety, are inevitable. What is of utmost importance is that we learn the lessons taught.
(Only later did I fully grasp that small mistakes are actually desirable).