Published February 2005

Change your life by taking
responsibility for it

A very wise manager I worked for some years ago once said, “An awful lot of the important things in the world get done by people who don’t feel good that day.”

He wasn’t one of those people who spouted homemade or store-bought maxims to us. What had prompted his observation was my behavior. We were working on an important project, and since we were nearing the deadline, I had come in even though I had a miserable cold. Obviously, I was expecting some sympathy or some recognition for this. Instead, I got something else: 20 words.

As it turned out, the 20 words were more valuable than any praise, sympathy or thanks that could have been offered. At the time, I didn’t really understand what he was getting at. But when I did, I realized what a powerful lesson he had given me.

In a related example, for several years the Volkswagen people have used an advertisement that goes like this: “In the world of automobiles, there are drivers and there are passengers.” Then, after a pause, this appears on the screen: “Drivers wanted.”

In the world of business, too, there are drivers and there are passengers. The difference often comes down to one thing — and that one thing is not, perhaps, what you might expect. The difference turns out to be responsibility.

We often think that the difference is motivation, and, in a sense, we are not wrong in that. But if we retrace the steps to motivation, we find that it starts with responsibility. Motivation without responsibility has a name. We call it wishing.

In business, in a sense, almost all of us are motivated. We would like to get more money and more recognition. What happens to so many people in business, though, is that they simply do not know how to translate the wishing form of this motivation into the kind that delivers some results. Walking around looking greedy or needy doesn’t get us anywhere — in fact, these visible traits may become obstacles to our success.

Fortunately, the very first step in converting our wishes into practical advancement is a simple one. We don’t have to say or do anything. In fact, it is crucial that we don’t say anything.

The very next time that you come into work with a headache, with aching bones or simply tired and sleep-deprived because of your next-door neighbor’s new puppy, who misses his mother, don’t tell anyone about it. Keep it to yourself. That’s all you have to do for the first step: don’t tell anyone not to count on you or about how difficult your job might be, because you are “not 100 percent today.”

The first time you try it, you may not be able to get through the entire morning without telling someone how miserable you feel. But at least you didn’t begin your day with an excuse. Soon you will be able to get through a whole day, then two days, a week — and eventually, excuses of that kind will no longer be a part of your working life.

One of the byproducts of your new attitude will be that you notice just how many people can’t get through the first hour of the workday without sharing their health or personal problems. It is probably best to leave the psychological reasons for this to the experts, but as a “reformed user,” you will now be able to see clearly how their habit gets in the way of their motivation. It makes people passive, simply waiting for things to happen to them.

Excuses are the enemy of responsibility, and taking responsibility is how we get what we want in this world.

Once you have dumped the “not 100 percent today” habit, you can start on some other things that get between us and our goals in business.

Stop blaming the weather forecasters, the traffic or the bus driver for your being late for work. Once you take responsibility for yourself, you will stop planning your day around the minimum travel time — the “perfect commute.” It’s no fun setting the alarm early enough to hear the traffic and weather reports in time to do something about them — like leave early —- but that is the kind of thing that will move you toward motivation that brings results.

By themselves, these simple steps will not effect a miraculous turnaround in your business career. But they will change your life in a way that will make your work, and your life, more rewarding and more satisfying.

Taking personal responsibility isn’t enough to right all the wrongs, injustices and even random luck in this world. But it is a way for you to get past them.

James McCusker, a Bothell economist, educator and small-business consultant, writes “Your Business” in The Herald each Sunday. He can be reached by sending e-mail to otisrep@aol.com.

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