It’s All My Fault
Why a small business entrepreneur should view everything as their fault - the good, the bad and everything in between
A high opinion of ourselves…
As entrepreneurs, we tend to have high opinions of our own abilities. It’s an inherent trait of the type of person who’s willing to run a company and take on the competition.
This self-belief can be our Achilles heel though when it blinds us from our own needs to change. Something’s not right. Well, I’m perfect, so it must be the other party that’s at fault. I’ve heard the following countless times:
That staff member makes countless mistakes
My web design agency is useless
The clients never read the documents properly
Baked into these statements is the idea that the other party is at fault, and implicitly that I’m not at fault.
When something’s not right, I’ve two choices:
Option 1: Blame them
Blame the other party. This makes me feel good, too. I did everything right, I’m great. It’s the other person who’s not able to do their job.
And if I did everything perfectly, why would I change how I approach the same situation next time?
My plan is to do exactly the same next time around, so most likely ending up in exactly the same situation.
The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
- Albert Einstein (probably)
Option 2: Blame myself
Instead of blaming someone else, I’m going to blame myself. It’s my fault that the staff member made a mistake - because I didn’t recruit well enough, because I didn’t train them properly, because I didn’t manage them properly.
Now, it’s my fault, I’m going to make a change next time around and stop the issue from happening again.
It doesn’t matter who’s fault it was
I never worry about whose fault something actually is. Yes, my supplier might be totally useless. But it’s something I’ve done that’s put me in that situation. I need to change what I do, otherwise I’ll end up in the same situation again.
The Improvement Mindset: Blame Myself
There’s only one person that I can change - myself. Everything else around me is just a product of what I have done or not done.
A poor staff member? - that’s my bad training, my bad management, my bad recruitment process.
A useless web design agency? - I didn’t put due time and attention into selecting them. I gave them a poor brief. My expectations of what’s achievable in that budget are wrong.
Clients never reading documents properly - My expectations, in terms of what I can ask them to read, are off. I’ve not put the time in to distil the documents down to the key information. I should have taken the time to chat through the key points in person.
By blaming myself for everything, I am being open to the fact that I need to change something I do. And, if I want things to be better, change is a requirement.
For good things as well as bad
I also ‘blame’ myself for all successes too.
By taking the credit, I’m acknowledging that my actions had some part to play in the outcome, and I must repeat those actions next time to get those great results again.
Wow, that staff member is brilliant - I must keep up the staff management and motivation because something is working in there
The web design agency is exceptional - all the work I did on my supplier selection process worked. No shortcuts next time, I’ll keep doing that
Take responsibility for everything, both good and bad. With this mindset, you can fix the cause of the problem, learn and improve.
