Accept Responsibility and Be Accountable

Have you ever heard the saying, "If you accept responsibility and be accountable, nothing will happen"? I think everyone has. In fact, it is a very powerful statement. It reminds me of a quote by Napoleon Hill: "Whatever the circumstances, I prefer to do things that way which I expect to meet with success."

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The power of the mindset to accept responsibility and be accountable cannot be overstated. The most successful leaders take the responsibility to get it done right and make sure that it happens. Success is rare in this world. You have to be willing to accept responsibility for anything that happens or fails.

Think about it. If you accept responsibility and be accountable, nothing will happen - even failure. It really is that simple! People think that failure means they failed at something important. This isn't true; it means they didn't do their job.

Do you have an idea how often I've heard "I just didn't know how to do it"? A lot. Most people are so quick to blame others when they don't get their work done on time. They don't take ownership or responsibility.

So, here's my advice. If you don't like taking responsibility and being accountable, find someone else to do it. Just because you're busy doesn't mean you can't do your job. If you take the time to delegate responsibilities, it doesn't mean you aren't working. You are. Just find someone else to do it.

When I was growing up, my father always used to say, "Don't blame me, Blame Rome!" He meant, Blame the government, Blame the teachers, Blame anybody else but himself. In other words, blame nothing. What I learned from that is you're going to do what you have to in order to survive and thrive in this society and that includes making choices. We were a family of survivors and I grew into a survivor. Now I'm a survivor and I understand what he meant by that.

Now, if you choose not to accept any accountability, then you're doomed. If you choose to do something, then you better do it. It has to be done. You can't hide from it, whether you're doing it as a consultant or running your own consulting firm. That's what being an expert is all about.

Don't blame the messenger for bringing it to you. It's got to be done. Think on this.

It's funny when people say, "I accept responsibility and be accountable." It's like saying, "I'm a responsible person." But that's just backwards. Because what it really means is, I'm blaming somebody else for my lousy choices in life.

So if you blame somebody else for your lousy choices in life, how are you going to live a good life? Not me, you don't. You've got to change that mindset. It has nothing to do with whether you accept responsibility and be accountable. It has everything to do with whether you're going to help yourself first.

If you accept anything that goes wrong, blame anyone but yourself. If you blame somebody else, you will never learn anything because you're always looking up at the person who caused the problem. You look at them and say, "Why me?" And that's where we stop making progress.

You see, the only way to grow and succeed is by changing yourself so you blame nobody but yourself. The reason we make mistakes and slip ups is because we blame somebody else. When we understand that we create our own problems, we can choose to not create future problems. If you want to create improvements in your life, then you've got to be totally accountable and accept that it all starts with you.

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When we allow any other person to decide everything about our life, we become slaves. We give them all of the credit and blame. Life isn't a victim, it's a survivor. We survive by fighting fires both internally and externally. We fight our own fires by staying strong and taking responsibility for our own life.