We are all manufacturers – some make good, others make trouble, and still others make excuses. Excuses are around every corner. Some heard, some seen, some felt. Several excuses are always less convincing than one. If you don’t want to do something, one excuse is as good as another. How strange to use “You only live once” as an excuse to throw it away. Excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing. One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people’s excuses for failure. But there’s a limit. As a manager I once told my colleague, “Your letter of excuses has arrived. I received the letter this morning. But do not admit the excuses except in courtesy, as when a man treads on your toes and begs your pardon – the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there is a corn upon it.” I never got another one ever. Remember that the person who really wants to do something finds a way; the other person finds an excuse.
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. Don’t make excuses – make good. He, who excuses himself, accuses himself. Maybe you don’t like your job, maybe you didn’t get enough sleep, well nobody likes their job, and nobody got enough sleep. Maybe you just had the worst day of your life, but you know, there’s no escape, there’s no excuse, so just suck up and be nice. My dad told me once that the best day of my life is the one on which I’d decide my life is my own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is mine – it is an amazing journey – and I alone am responsible for the quality of it. This is the day my life would really begin.
