Sometimes, writing an article for a magazine turns out to be quite a challenge: either nothing interesting comes to mind, or you have too many ideas, or you can’t find the best way to put them on paper, and so on. This time, for example, it’s been a week since I’ve been trying to get started, without success:first of all, there was the Italy-France match, and you know how it is—you can’t miss it—and on top of that, you have to mentally prepare yourself to watch it properly; then it took me two days to get over the disappointment of Italy’s World Cup defeat. After that, the heat came and I didn’t really feel like writing anything; and one evening, when it was a bit cooler, I wanted to write, but a really nice movie started on ProTV and… let’s leave it for tomorrow. Then I had to go to the Passport Office, one time some friends came over, another time the kids were making noise…
Finally, only now, a week after I was supposed to turn in the article to the editorial office, might finally get the article done.
Of course, the editor-in-chief called me every day: “Bruno, how’s the article coming along?” And I’d reply: “Um, I’ve been really busy with an extremely important and delicate matter, but I promise I’ll send it tomorrow.”
I couldn’t help but think that, fortunately, my relationship with the editorial staff is based on friendship and people tolerate this kind of behavior patiently, because if I had been just any editor, I would have been fired without much discussion (and rightly so!).

Why Our Excuses Always Sound Reasonable

This situation I’ve described above got me thinking: I don’t know how credible I was with my excuses about the “important and delicate work”, but one thing is certain: I know that, in fact, it was all about trivial things—football, movies, friends—and yet, when I told them, they all seemed like very convincing reasons to postpone things for another time.
I imagined one of my employees coming to tell me: “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t do my job because I was upset about the match” (?!?) or “I would have liked to finish the task, but there was a really good movie on TV and…” (?!?!?) or “I know I was supposed to take care of such-and-such, but it was so hot I just didn’t feel like it” (?!?!?!?) and so on.

The Double Standard We Apply to Ourselves

Would I have accepted that? Of course not. In fact, if someone came to me with excuses like that, I’d think they’d gone crazy or were making fun of me, they’re that ridiculous.
Still, the fact remains that, on the moment, all these reasons seemed convincing enough to me.
As a result, I asked myself a question: how is it that excuses no boss (myself included) would accept from an employee seem so good to me when they come from me?
It’s such a good question—one so closely tied to success or failure in business—that I’m asking you right now: how many times have you justified your actions (or lack thereof) with reasons you wouldn’t accept from anyone else?

For some, the best thing about being an entrepreneur—whether small or large—is precisely the fact that you don’t have a boss to whom you have to answer for what you do and don’t do. You can organize your time however you want, you’re in control of your actions, you make the decisions you want, at the time that suits you best, you can stay in bed or go for a walk, and no one will hold it against you.

The Freedom and the Trap of Being Your Own Boss

Unfortunately, for most people, this freedom simply turns out to be the key to failure: it’s easier to stick to a commitment when you have someone yelling at you or threatening you with a penalty than when you’re only accountable to yourself. In the latter case, it’s extremely easy to slack off, making excuses that you wouldn’t be able to keep up if you were working for someone else.

Self-Discipline vs External Pressure

You don’t have to be a genius to notice that the entire social and professional structure is designed to force you to keep your commitments. How many of us would have had the same level of education if we’d taught ourselves? How many of us would be able to stick to a sports training program without a coach pushing us? Etc. The ability to make a commitment to yourself and keep it is the key to any entrepreneur’s success—far more important than academic or professional training, the support you receive, the initial capital at your disposal, and so on.

Would You Hire Yourself?

And since *Idei de Afaceri* magazine is read by current and future entrepreneurs, I’d like to suggest a little exercise to see if you really have what it takes:
Think about the position you currently hold—maybe you’re a salesperson, a manager, or an entrepreneur; it doesn’t matter. Imagine you need to find someone to replace you for a while: what qualities should that person have? How should they act? What training would they need? What kind of person should they be? What exactly should they do? Think seriously about these things, just as you would when preparing for a job interview. Then, move on to the key question: would you hire yourself? Do you feel you meet all the qualities you’re looking for? And if it were a business, would you invest in something you manage yourself?

If done seriously, this analysis can prove extremely valuable for our future. If we manage to be objective and look at ourselves as if we were someone else, we might discover weaknesses or strengths we’ve never considered before.

The Most Important Interview You’ll Ever Have

Here are a few questions that may help you during this job interview:

What experience do you have, both the successful parts and the failures? Remember, you don’t have to convince a stranger, but yourself. If you lie, you’re only deceiving yourself.

Describe your last week of work in detail. How did you use your time? What decisions did you make? How did you interact with your colleagues? Which actions were truly profitable? If you saw someone else acting this way, would you hire them?

What are the major challenges you face? The market situation? Company leadership? Bureaucracy? Clients? Employees? Lack of organization? How many of these challenges depend solely on you? If someone else told you the same things, would you find them convincing?

How do others see you? What does your boss think of you? What about your customers? What about your colleagues? It’s very hard to be objective about this question, and it would be interesting if you could verify the answer: it’s incredibly unbelievable how big the difference is between how we think we’re seen and how we’re actually seen. Here’s a hint: if you saw someone acting just like you, what would you think?

If a goldfish granted you three wishes of any kind, what would you do? It might be that the things you want to change depend only on small decisions. And if the changes concern you as a person, perhaps you’ll realize that only you can make them.

If you had to give some advice to the person replacing you, what would be the most important points? Each of us turns out to be a great expert on everything when it comes to advising someone else (and it’s extremely interesting that we’re usually right). So why not use this talent to solve problems and find better ways to act, solutions…

Discovering the Truth Before Others Do

The purpose of this analysis is to dismantle the defense mechanisms we use to protect our self-respect. Even if we uncover some painful truths, they may hold the key to improving our personal performance. And it’s much better for us to make those discoveries ourselves, before someone else does!

Get to work!

by Bruno