Redefining the past

So before you start thinking that Rushkoff is totally off base, read this quote from the Lubavitcher Rebbe and tell me that he's not talking about the same thing:

Nothing can hold you back -- not your childhood, not the history of a lifetime, not even the very last moment before now. In a moment you can abandon your past. And once abandoned, you can redefine it.

If the past was a ring of futility, let it become a wheel of yearning that drives you forward. If the past was a brick wall, let it become a dam to unleash your power.

The very first step of change is so powerful, the boundaries of time fall aside. In one bittersweet moment, the sting of the past is dissolved and its honey salvaged.

OK, it's not directly, logically applicable, but the spirit is the same.