“Being on time is a prime characteristic of responsible people,” Norman G. Shidle once said. “And responsible people are what business and industry need most.”
Michael Korda, editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster, agrees. “Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility… In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.”
Have you ever had to paint something just up under the roof of a two-storey building? Remember going up that long extension ladder? You got halfway up and started to doubt about that ladder, its rungs and your body weight. You stop and hug the ladder; you don’t dare to look either up or down. Your left leg begins to wobble at the knee.
After a few long breaths, you conquer that particular rung and you grope your way to the next. Then, the next. Finally, you’re at the top on for dear life. How can you dare to take one hand off the ladder to use the paint brush? But you do.
Tight as a guitar string, you begin to paint. The sky is clear; the sun is nice. The thirsty wood soaks up the paint. You whistle and begin to think high, positive thoughts and you do a good job. You’ve forgotten all about the height.
That experience has taught you an important lesson in life: no matter what higher responsibility you take on, it’s scary – very scary until you start working.
Some people want higher positions in life but don’t want the responsibilities that go along with it. Listen to the words of Albert Einstein: “A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”
People demand of their rights. But what about the responsibilities attached to that right? “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty,” John D. Rockefeller Jr. reminds. Or, as Gerald W. Johnson puts it: “No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.”
Give a man responsibility and he will either take it or ignore it. “A man who enjoys responsibility usually gets it,” Malcolm S. Forbes points out. “A man who merely likes exercising authority usually loses it.”
There once was an important football game between a very large and a very small team. The larger team was dominating the game. The coach for the smaller team saw that his team was unable to contain or block the larger team. So his only hope was to call the plays that went to Phil, the fastest back in the area, who could easily outrun the larger players once he broke free.
The coach talked to his quarterback about giving the ball to Phil and letting him run with it. On the first play, the coach was excited, but Phil did not get the ball. On the second and third play, he again signaled for Phil but once again Phil did not get the ball. Now, the game was in the final seconds with the smaller team’s only hope on Phil to break free and score the winning touchdown. For the fourth and final play of the game the coach sent in the Phil play.
The ball was snapped from center and before the quarterback could take three steps he was sacked, thereby ending the game. The coach was furious as he confronted the quarterback, “I told you four times to give the ball to Phil. You didn’t, and now we’ve lost the game.”
The quarterback stood tall and told the coach, “Four times I called the play to give the ball to Phil. The problem was that Phil did not want the ball.”
If you longing to become a manager, a president, a chief executive officer, or even getting married, you need to be responsible for all the actions you will do. Don’t blame others for the failures you have done. And if you’re successful, give others the credit also.
If you think working hard for eights hours a day is a characteristic for someone who is responsible, think again. In a study of self-made millionaires, Dr. Thomas Stanley of the University of Georgia found that they all have one thing in common: they work hard. Not only for eight hours but twelve to fourteen hours a day!
“It took me fifteen years, working for a large organization, to realize that in our society you wok eight hours a day for survival, and if you work only eight hours a day, all you do is survive,” a millionaire replied when asked why he worked more than the minimum work hours for a person. “Everything over eight hours is an investment in your future.”
In your company, business, or family, who takes the responsibility of day-to-day activities? Instead of taking in charge, do you pass it to others? Here’s a reminder for all of us:
Recently, we were saddened by the death of one of our committee’s most valuable members, who went by the name of Someone Else. His passing leaves a gap which will be hard to fill. Someone Else had been with the committee from the beginning. He always did more than the normal person’s share of work.
Whenever there was a job to be done, whenever a helping hand was needed, whenever we needed someone just to listen – one word was on everybody’s lips: “Let Someone Else do it.”
Whenever there was a need for volunteers, everyone took it for granted that Someone Else would step forward.
Someone Else was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing to be super human. But a person can do only so much. And if we’re going to be honest about it, we’ll have to admit that we all expected too much of Someone Else. Perhaps that is what killed him.
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
