Taking ownership in a situation that didn’t go your way requires having accountability for your performance.
Don’t be upset by the results you didn’t get from the work you didn’t do. Progress starts with effort.
It was twenty years ago. I owned an indoor sports training center in Kingston, NY. I had several high school-age leagues and teams. I was always asking parents about their kids’ college prospects.
Then one day, around 4:00, I asked a father about his son’s college situation. He went into a 5-minute tirade about how it didn’t turn out right and that it was everybody else’s fault: the high school guidance counsellor, the coach, and, of course, the colleges.
It was a rant full of outside blame. But it wasn’t the first one I heard. In fact, I had already heard dozens of gripes and complaints from numerous parents, all blaming others for things that didn’t turn out the way they wanted.
By 4:15, I declared, “I’m going to spend the rest of my life teaching young people to take ownership of their lives. I will use college as my platform for doing so.”
Not long after, CollegeLogic was born.
Taking ownership means being accountable for our performance and responsible for why we didn’t achieve the desired result.
In the NCAA Football playoff selection, taking ownership and assigning blame were on full display at two very significant universities and their coaches.
Twelve teams made the playoffs. Two notable and worthy teams did not- Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. Both teams were great this year. Both teams were 10 – 2 against tough competition.
These were two excellent teams. However, their responses to being left out of the playoffs were drastically different, prompting me to add a new, recent quote to my series of impactful quotes.
Vanderbilt Coach Clark Lea said, “That’s no one’s fault except our own. We had our opportunities, and we didn’t do enough. We are not victims in this process. Our ownership is in coming up short.”
I love that. Thank you, Coach Lea. What a great inspiration for us all.
I’m not going to blur Coach Lea’s response with Notre Dame’s, except to note that Notre Dame blamed others and chose to quit the season by refusing to play in a Bowl game.
Vanderbilt’s response stood tall, serving as a strong example of taking ownership… a lesson for us all.
