My father was a sergeant during WWII and as you might imagine he was a tough, no nonsense guy and frankly not always the easiest person to deal with.
Regardless of the situation he taught me many valuable things, one of which was to take personal responsibility for my actions. It was, and is, one of the most valuable pieces of wisdom I have ever received. I remember his “talks” in which he explained how important it was for people to take responsibility for their actions. That everyone would be faced with a lot of different choices during their lifetime and that it was important for each of us to evaluate them, their consequences, and to ultimately make the right decision. He especially stressed that I really think about the impact that my choices would have upon not just my life, but how they might affect other members of my family or people that we cared about.
For some reason this stuck with me and over the years it became even more meaningful to me as I matured. Have I always been perfect in applying this theory? Absolutely not, but it is one of the major reasons that I have been successful in my business career and why I have been able to keep my head up when things may not have looked so rosy.
His words often echoed in my head that I had to be responsible for my success AND my future. No one else was going to do it for me.
Without wanting to sound too curmudgeonly, I think that this type of personal responsibility has somehow gotten lost along the way. I don’t have any statistics or studies to site, but my gut tells me that many people today seem to have a certain level of entitlement based upon nothing more than the fact that they are alive. It appears to me that not many people adopt the attitude that they need to control their destiny, that they are responsible for their success, or that they have any personal responsibility for their overall actions. As I write this, “the devil made me do it” as a cynical, yet humorous way to avoid personal responsibility continually pops into my mind!
Accountability
Quotes
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Abraham Lincoln
“If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”
Less Brown
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.“
George Bernard Shaw
