If people consistantly excel at anything, it’s making excuses. For mistakes. For missing deadlines. For quitting before reaching that goal. For pretty much anything that involves effort and risk whether personal or professional. And of course there are the many excuses why a business isn’t able delight a customer – it’d cost too much, they’d always expect it, we can’t make exceptions, yada yada nada.
What do you think would happen if we suddenly stopped making excuses and admitted the truth? That mistakes happen. That it’s okay to take responsibility for the work we do. That effort’s not a bad thing.
For one thing, not making excuses increases productivity because you’re not wasting time explaining why you couldn’t – and focusing on what you can. I find such people much more interesting to be around. They’re focused on possibility and moving forward.
Excuses are simply roadblocks that prevent achieving real success. Companies that make excuses don’t have good processes for managing, hiring and empowering great people. The Ritz Carlton and Zappos are two companies who get it – and they’ve not done too bad. Make the buck stop with you – it’s not that scary!
