> very easy to describe all your successes (project not canceled) in terms of your team's greatness, and all your failures (project canceled) in terms of other people's capriciousness.
I see this belief in probably about 80% of people I encounter, and it has little correlation with how smart one is.
I like to hang out with people who take responsibility for their failures rather than complaining about how circumstance, "The Man", or other people have it in for them. Such people are far more interesting. Unsurprisingly, they're also far more successful.
Successful people are emotionally invested in the idea that there is a strong correlation between personal behaviours and outcomes - On the other hand, unsuccessful people are more likely to believe that there is little correlation between the two; that it's mostly random and that skill only plays a tiny role.
Successful people will often try to argue that unsuccessful people who believe in luck don't succeed because their feeling of helplessness inhibits their actions (e.g. makes them lazy). From my personal experience, I think that this is not the case at all - In fact, I know many serial-failures who keep working very hard and are extremely driven in sprite of the terrible odds (and their keen awareness/first-hand-experience of those odds)... In fact, I find that serial-failures tend to work harder and smarter (have better critical thinking skills) than people who were successful at some point in the past (probably because unsuccessful people are more hungry for achievements and because they are more likely to identify and acknowledge flaws in their own plans).
Humans are hard-wired to gamble and accept terrible odds. People know that it's almost impossible to win the lottery and yet so many of them keep buying tickets every week - Terrible odds don't inhibit behaviour; especially if the media keeps priming us with the idea that we have full control over our destiny... That's pretty much the basis for all the superhero movies which are so popular these days.
Humans are hard-wired to gamble and accept terrible odds. People know that it's almost impossible to win the lottery and yet so many of them keep buying tickets every week.
I think you severely overestimate the average persons understanding of how gambling works.
It's the same kind of thing as how when you accidentally cut someone off while driving it's because they were in your blindspot and you're having a bad day and it's the first time that's ever happened etc etc... and when someone else cuts you off they're an idiot who shouldn't be on the road and they probably always drive badly.
Great advice that is only surpassed by the golden rule.
I was fortunate to have a senior director type guy give me this advice early on. (Although not quite as politely!) I followed it and it has served me well.
A real man might take responsibility, but if that ever becomes too visible you will be made the dunce if not scapegoat. Maybe only the successful people had the clout to pull it off. :/
Admitting mistakes to move on, failing fast, should prevent prolonging arguements though (if you can pull it off).
Sometimes it is your fault, other times it is circumstance and yet other times there was risk/luck involved (e.g. success depended on factors out of your control that could go either way). Both assuming that it was "me" and that it was "circumstance" is wrong.
> I see this belief in probably about 80% of people I encounter, and it has little correlation with how smart one is.
The virtue he is discussing is humility vs pride, and I think you're right that it isn't really correlated with intelligence. People all over the IQ spectrum will exhibit both.
Pride may be a common stumbling block to those who don't often experience failure though (i.e in the smarter crowd), because failure teaches circumspection and trains you to question your assumptions and reasoning when challenged.
> failure teaches circumspection and trains you to question your assumptions and reasoning when challenged.
In smart people maybe...
Just thinking out loud, but maybe dumb people continue to do dumb things because they don't have the insight or motivation to question their behaviour or the possible outcomes of their behaviour? ie they're not as good at learning from their mistakes?
It's more than that. People who take personal responsibility for failures in their life empower themselves to fix it, find a way around it, do better next time, etc.
People who consider themselves as victims believe there's nothing they can do to improve their lot, and so do not.
Good point. I hadn't considered the importance, not just in recognizing your part of the problem (humility), but accepting that it is you who can and should fix the problem (confidence, determination).
I see this belief in probably about 80% of people I encounter, and it has little correlation with how smart one is.
I like to hang out with people who take responsibility for their failures rather than complaining about how circumstance, "The Man", or other people have it in for them. Such people are far more interesting. Unsurprisingly, they're also far more successful.