17Stop Making Excuses
Everyone has a reason for why they're not doing business better. Problem is, they're not really reasons. They're excuses. Half of this book is about dispelling excuses.
Put simply, you can always find an excuse. Excuses let you sleep at night. It's not your fault. The dog ate your homework. You're a victim of the economy. You're in the wrong field. You didn't have enough notice.
On and on the excuses flow. Some are so outrageous, they're laughable. I have a brother who's been financially irresponsible his entire life. His excuse for being broke since the 1980s is the recession of 2008.
Successful people don't make excuses. When they occasionally do, they even admit they're doing it. “I know, I'm making an excuse…I haven't completed this project and it's because I've just lost focus.”
At least that's an honest statement. Beats the heck out of the overly used “I'm so busy, blah blah blah.”
Scarcity as an Excuse
Generally, people use scarcity when concocting their excuses. They pretend they're not more successful because they lack something. Time, money, education, assistance, and so the list of scarcity‐derived excuses goes. It's easier to list a shortage of things preventing goal attainment, than to admit what's really lacking: effort.
Which brings me to my theory on excuses and what I call the Myth of Inadequate Resources.
The Myth of Inadequate Resources ...
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