I Have No Time for Excuses

I’m more than a little angry tonight and if it shows, it should.  I’m seventy-four years old and I have no time for excuses, either from myself or others.  An excuse is entertaining.  Other than that it accomplishes less than nothing.  And I’ve heard too many excuses this week, including the following:

From an escrow officer who failed to close a sale on time: “My staff and I have worried about this for two weeks, and all of us have spent many sleepless nights.”  Perhaps they should read the chapter in People Tools for Business, “You Are Not in the Business of Making Telephone Calls.”  You are in the business of achieving results.

From a law firm that was attempting to help me close a large real estate transaction: “Our attorneys worked on this all weekend.”  Unfortunately, they failed to let me know what they needed in time for a Monday evening City Council meeting.  As a result, at a substantial cost, the closing was postponed for two weeks.

From Carl, a writer who didn’t meet a magazine’s deadline: “I worked all day and was too tired to finish the project last night.”  I understand.  We all get tired.  The platinum rule in real estate is Location, Location, and Location.  The platinum rule in business is Management, Management, and Management.  The platinum rule in writing it is Finish, Finish, and Finish.   Carl’s article will not appear in the magazine.

No one wants to fail.  More important, no one wants to be seen as failing by anyone else.  That is why we invent excuses.

But as a friend of mine, Roxan, recently said: “We will never rise any further than our excuses will allow.”

If we want to succeed in life we should remember to avoid excuses, especially excuses to ourselves.

This advice would have come in handy for Harold (fictitious name), who wins the Olympic Gold medal for excuses I’ve heard this week.

Harold was seeking to expedite the delivery of an important shipment to my office.  I’m sure he was trying to help.  He tried so hard that he talked not only to the delivery driver, but also to the CEO of the shipping company, who became angry and called me directly:

“Your representative Harold said that my delivery service was like a box of Kleenex—and that you could easily find another vendor. I explained to him that the reason that the delivery was delayed was because we didn’t receive the package from the manufacturer on time, and we simply couldn’t drive fast enough to make up the difference. But Harold just wouldn’t listen.  I’m sorry that we couldn’t deliver on Thursday, as scheduled.  But if you don’t want us to work for you any more just tell me.”

Whoa! Normally I don’t give much value to the whole “he said, she said” back and forth because no one can prove anything.  But I did know for sure that the CEO was now angry with me.  And I also had heard this type of story about Harold before.

I value every one of my suppliers.  Even if I replace them, I am polite.  I called Harold and told him what the CEO had unloaded on me.

“That’s not true,” Harold said.  “I never said anything like that.  I never intended to insult anyone.  Maybe he was having a bad day.”

“Harold, then it’s even worse than I thought.  If you insulted an important supplier of mine without even knowing or intending to, then you can’t possible avoid a similar situation in the future.”

Who is right?  I don’t know.  I wasn’t on the original call.

What I do know is that the shipping company is reliable and has always worked in my best interest.  I also know their CEO was ready to quit working for me.

So what is my excuse for the reported behavior of Harold?

I have none.  I have apologized in writing and have an appointment to take the CEO to lunch next week.

Alan