Excuses, excuses
July 25, 2005 | 12:00am
Back in grade school, there was one guy who scared the daylights out of me – our prefect of discipline, Mr. Balaswit. Mr. Balaswit was The Terminator and The Predator rolled in one. I couldn’t use my brothers as "restback" with this guy. If I told my brothers, "Hey, Mr. Balaswit wants me to see him in his office," my brothers would simply say, "You’re on your own, kid!" Mr. Balaswit epitomized the ultimate authoritarian figure. Everyone – including the bullies – was afraid of him. If he caught you tinkering with a toy or gadget, it was confiscated right away. No ifs, no buts. And no excuses, too. Once your gadget was confiscated, that was it. "Confiscated" was one of the first complicated words I learned in life. Right now, I imagine that there must be hundreds of Game and Watch units gathering dust in Mr. Balaswit’s cabinet.
Anyway, the reason why I’m bringing up Mr. Balaswit is because I remember how all of us had to go through an "interrogation" in his office whenever we arrived late for school. I really don’t know now but back then, if we arrived at 7:31 a.m., we couldn’t go to our classrooms right away. We had to go through Mr. Balaswit’s office. And we had to justify that our tardiness was "excused" by filling up an excuse slip. So back then, there was such a thing as "excused" tardiness and "unexcused" tardiness. What’s the difference? Well, there was basically a bigger demerit if you had an unexcused tardiness. If you had a legitimate excuse, then you were OK. In my case, however, it was always our driver who brought us to school. And unfortunately, he wasn’t as slick as most mothers when it came to coming up with excuses. His charms simply didn’t work for Mr. Balaswit. So everytime we were late, we were given an unexcused tardiness mark.
While I may sound like I’m whining about the tough life I had in elementary, I want to let you know that I consider that era as the good old days. Sure, I was scared out of my pants back then. But as I look back now, I remember those days as fond memories. Because back then, the whole notion of having something rated as "excused" or "unexcused" still existed. In the world I’m living in now, this concept no longer exists.
In the real world, making "excuses" is tantamount to saying "I can’t do it." The only difference is that when you say you can’t do it, you’re being straightforward and honest. On the other hand, when you try to reason out why you failed to do something, you’re really just sugarcoating your goof-up. In the end, the people you’re talking to will simply say, "He didn’t do it. Period."
Take a look at professional sports. When you look at the NBA record books, the Detroit Pistons are listed as the champions in 2004. But then, a Laker fan might say, "Well, you have to remember Karl Malone was injured so that’s why the Lakers lost the series." But it doesn’t work that way. In the record books, the Pistons are – and will always be – the champs. No excuses offered by any Laker fan will change that. And that’s that. End of story.
Personally, I simply can’t accept my staff telling me, "I’m sorry, chief. I didn’t meet our business targets this week because I had a headache and my doctor told me to have complete bed rest for three days. Here’s my medical certificate." Or, "Sir, I’m sorry I didn’t finish the project because it was my great granduncles’s death anniversary and we had a fiesta the whole week in the province to commemorate it." In the real world, that is, the corporate world, it just won’t work.
I’ve noticed, however, that a lot of us never graduate from that "excuse slip" mentality. A lot of us still feel that we can get away with things simply by giving an excuse.
Take a look at the controversies plaguing the pre-need and educational insurance industry. It’s a mess right now. A lot of people (and I know some of the victims personally) set aside their hard-earned money to ensure their kids’ future. After contributing a considerable sum over a number of years, what do they get? A statement from a lawyer saying that they will not get the tuition fees that was promised because the company has suffered losses on account of the fact that they did not anticipate the rate of increase of tuition fees every year. Hello! There is a reason why people buy insurance and educational plans. It’s to ensure that you are able to meet your needs in the future. Not having been able to anticipate the escalating costs of tuition is not an excuse. It’s an abomination. Maybe if the whole head office burned down, that would have been some kind of an excuse to give to planholders. An honest assessment of one’s failure is 10 million times better than a lousy excuse. And that’s what these poor planholders are getting right now. And they don’t deserve it.
Recently, Bernard Ebbers, ex-CEO of Worldcom, was found guilty on all counts for his role in the huge accounting scandal that led to the largest bankruptcy case in US history. His excuse? He didn’t really check his financial documents; his accountant took care of it and he just assumed it was correct. You know what the jury answered? "Yeah, right." With that excuse, he will be spending the next 25 years of his life in jail.
In this day and age, we can’t live our lives anticipating that we can make an excuse for every failure and then expect that the world will let us go scot-free. We have to live our lives and perform our everyday duties thinking that there is simply no excuse for mediocrity – and definitely no excuse for failure. We can come up with all the excuses in the world. The Pope was 84 years old and had Parkinson’s disease yet he never stopped working until his last day on earth. Christopher Reeve was a quadriplegic and yet he directed several movies, wrote a couple of books, and spearheaded a crusade before his body eventually gave up on him. There was a recent ANC feature on Socorro Ramos, founder and general manager of National Book Store. She never had the benefit of a complete education. Did she make that an excuse for failure? Nope. She used it as "fuel" to build the monolithic National Book Store empire.
Today, a lot of us blame our misery on the government. Whatever happens to us, it’s the government’s fault. If we bump our car, it’s the government’s fault. When we lose our house keys, it’s the government’s fault. The government is the default excuse in everything negative that happens to us. Well, guess what – it’s not the government. The reason why we’re not progressing is because we’re too busy whining about the government.
So no more excuses, please. Instead, just work the hardest you can. If you fail, you fail. You move on. If you succeed, well and good.
Because when you succeed, you’ll never have to bother to think of a good excuse ever again.
Thanks for your letters! You may e-mail me at rodnepo@yahoo.com.
Anyway, the reason why I’m bringing up Mr. Balaswit is because I remember how all of us had to go through an "interrogation" in his office whenever we arrived late for school. I really don’t know now but back then, if we arrived at 7:31 a.m., we couldn’t go to our classrooms right away. We had to go through Mr. Balaswit’s office. And we had to justify that our tardiness was "excused" by filling up an excuse slip. So back then, there was such a thing as "excused" tardiness and "unexcused" tardiness. What’s the difference? Well, there was basically a bigger demerit if you had an unexcused tardiness. If you had a legitimate excuse, then you were OK. In my case, however, it was always our driver who brought us to school. And unfortunately, he wasn’t as slick as most mothers when it came to coming up with excuses. His charms simply didn’t work for Mr. Balaswit. So everytime we were late, we were given an unexcused tardiness mark.
While I may sound like I’m whining about the tough life I had in elementary, I want to let you know that I consider that era as the good old days. Sure, I was scared out of my pants back then. But as I look back now, I remember those days as fond memories. Because back then, the whole notion of having something rated as "excused" or "unexcused" still existed. In the world I’m living in now, this concept no longer exists.
In the real world, making "excuses" is tantamount to saying "I can’t do it." The only difference is that when you say you can’t do it, you’re being straightforward and honest. On the other hand, when you try to reason out why you failed to do something, you’re really just sugarcoating your goof-up. In the end, the people you’re talking to will simply say, "He didn’t do it. Period."
Take a look at professional sports. When you look at the NBA record books, the Detroit Pistons are listed as the champions in 2004. But then, a Laker fan might say, "Well, you have to remember Karl Malone was injured so that’s why the Lakers lost the series." But it doesn’t work that way. In the record books, the Pistons are – and will always be – the champs. No excuses offered by any Laker fan will change that. And that’s that. End of story.
Personally, I simply can’t accept my staff telling me, "I’m sorry, chief. I didn’t meet our business targets this week because I had a headache and my doctor told me to have complete bed rest for three days. Here’s my medical certificate." Or, "Sir, I’m sorry I didn’t finish the project because it was my great granduncles’s death anniversary and we had a fiesta the whole week in the province to commemorate it." In the real world, that is, the corporate world, it just won’t work.
I’ve noticed, however, that a lot of us never graduate from that "excuse slip" mentality. A lot of us still feel that we can get away with things simply by giving an excuse.
Take a look at the controversies plaguing the pre-need and educational insurance industry. It’s a mess right now. A lot of people (and I know some of the victims personally) set aside their hard-earned money to ensure their kids’ future. After contributing a considerable sum over a number of years, what do they get? A statement from a lawyer saying that they will not get the tuition fees that was promised because the company has suffered losses on account of the fact that they did not anticipate the rate of increase of tuition fees every year. Hello! There is a reason why people buy insurance and educational plans. It’s to ensure that you are able to meet your needs in the future. Not having been able to anticipate the escalating costs of tuition is not an excuse. It’s an abomination. Maybe if the whole head office burned down, that would have been some kind of an excuse to give to planholders. An honest assessment of one’s failure is 10 million times better than a lousy excuse. And that’s what these poor planholders are getting right now. And they don’t deserve it.
Recently, Bernard Ebbers, ex-CEO of Worldcom, was found guilty on all counts for his role in the huge accounting scandal that led to the largest bankruptcy case in US history. His excuse? He didn’t really check his financial documents; his accountant took care of it and he just assumed it was correct. You know what the jury answered? "Yeah, right." With that excuse, he will be spending the next 25 years of his life in jail.
In this day and age, we can’t live our lives anticipating that we can make an excuse for every failure and then expect that the world will let us go scot-free. We have to live our lives and perform our everyday duties thinking that there is simply no excuse for mediocrity – and definitely no excuse for failure. We can come up with all the excuses in the world. The Pope was 84 years old and had Parkinson’s disease yet he never stopped working until his last day on earth. Christopher Reeve was a quadriplegic and yet he directed several movies, wrote a couple of books, and spearheaded a crusade before his body eventually gave up on him. There was a recent ANC feature on Socorro Ramos, founder and general manager of National Book Store. She never had the benefit of a complete education. Did she make that an excuse for failure? Nope. She used it as "fuel" to build the monolithic National Book Store empire.
Today, a lot of us blame our misery on the government. Whatever happens to us, it’s the government’s fault. If we bump our car, it’s the government’s fault. When we lose our house keys, it’s the government’s fault. The government is the default excuse in everything negative that happens to us. Well, guess what – it’s not the government. The reason why we’re not progressing is because we’re too busy whining about the government.
So no more excuses, please. Instead, just work the hardest you can. If you fail, you fail. You move on. If you succeed, well and good.
Because when you succeed, you’ll never have to bother to think of a good excuse ever again.
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