In the fourth of six events during the men’s individual all-around gymnastics competition at the Olympics, American Paul Hamm did such a miserable vault that he almost ended up in the laps of the judges.

It turned out to be an opportunity. Hamm ended up being the first American man ever to win the all-around gold medal, even after the bad vault dropped him temporarily into 12th place.

Here are three workplace lessons from what happened:

Focus on what you can control. All Hamm could do after his mistake was try his best on the parallel bars and the high bar, his final two events. And he was nearly flawless, scoring 9.837 on each apparatus.

Too many times, workers dwell on mistakes or unfairness, especially if they can blame other people. Many athletes and workers crumble after a serious mistake, but the stars know how to bounce back.

Don’t magnify weaknesses. If a typical boss gave Hamm a performance review after the all-around competition, I bet 90 percent of it would have focused on the vault. The manager would have built the discussion around that one weakness rather than other outstanding results. And Hamm might have left feeling like a failure instead of a success.

Have someone sweat the details. Two days after the competition, South Korean officials protested, saying that bronze medalist Yang Tae-young’s score on the parallel should have been based on a possible score of 10.0 rather than 9.9, which probably would have given him the gold medal instead of Hamm. Officials agreed, but said it was too late to change the medal results.

Sometimes star workers overlook “little” details. If you know a star like that, make sure someone else follows through. It might help you turn bronze into gold.