Progress or Excuses? Pick One

May 04, 2012

A photo is making the rounds on the Internet and I stumbled upon it tonight. It’s a photo of a note that a customer left for his waitress with $.02 taped to the note.  I’ve had conversations with several people today who have formerly worked as wait staff and bartenders about this note.  The note was intended as a lesson in professionalism, perhaps some well-meaning advice.  But was it the right delivery?  Did the waitress understand the lesson?  Was it completely and wholly inappropriate for the customer to do this? 

The conversations about this have painted the customer as both “the good guy” for trying to impart a major life lesson and “the bad guy” for being a cheapskate.  The waitress has been painted as both a hard worker doing a hard job who is the victim of a horrible customer and the perpetrator of unprofessional service with a lousy work ethic and a sense of entitlement.  Since I wasn’t there, I have no idea which of these portrayals is closer to the truth.  (Probably neither of them!)  But in the conversations I’ve had with people about this, there is one thing that keeps coming up that tends to color how people view the situation.  That’s the word “excuse.”  Was the waitress making excuses for her poor service OR was she giving a customer good solid information about what was going on in the restaurant to properly set expectations?  Was she being very proactive in her role or was she being an unprofessional excuse maker?  The word “excuses” conjures up some memories for me…

I had a coach a long time ago who had a favorite quote when our team was not exactly putting out maximum effort during a practice.  I can still hear his booming voice in my head.  “Gentlemen, you can either make excuses or you can make progress, but you can’t make both!!!”  He didn’t need a megaphone.  His voice could carry through concrete walls.  He had a great point though, and as much as we didn’t want to hear the message on the practice field when our legs were tired and we were finishing practice with sprints, that’s a message that still resonates with me today.

With my budget I can either make excuses…OR I can make progress.  With my fitness level I can either make excuses, OR I can make progress.  With any goal in my life I have the option to make progress toward the goal or excuses for why I’m moving further away from it.  The restaurant angle of this story made me think about my goal of reducing my “Dining Out” budget by 50%.  When I finish writing this, I’m going to look at my spending level over the last few months to see if my New Year’s Resolution of cutting my restaurant budget in half is on track or if I’ve done some backsliding.

What can you do?  Take a look at 2-3 of your most important goals and determine if you’re making progress.  If not, are you making excuses?  Commit to a “No Excuses” policy for the next 30 days and make progress on your most important goals.  If not, I can have my old coach visit you to emphasize the point…