Life on the Farm

Victims Blame;
High Performers Accept Responsibility

Jan, a highly successful entrepreneur, endured tremendous hardships throughout life, including both of her parents dying before she was 6 years old. Later, in corporate America, she hit her head on the glass ceiling early — being a woman without a college degree. So Jan started her own business, building it to 40 employees. Things were going well until adversity struck again: When her company exposed a Fortune 500 company for not paying commissions and wanting to cover it up, this company attacked and destroyed Jan’s company.

Never the victim, Jan rebuilt her company to 70 employees, this time offering different services. But years later she again faced adversity — she caught her CFO embezzling and the police caught him flashing. Then her chief technology officer turned out to be a feared rapist. Regarding all her adversity, Jan said: “TC, you can’t make this s*it up.”

When I asked Jan how she stayed positive and kept going forward, she told me this story: “When my parents died, I was adopted by my mother’s best friend and her husband, who were farmers. I remember standing with my adopted dad watching a hail storm completely destroy our corn crop, which was about 4 inches high. When the storm was over, my dad just walked along the rows of destroyed corn and said, ‘I guess we’ll have to replant.’ I just live my life the way I learned on the farm.”

Neither Jan nor her father ever felt victimized; they took responsibility for creating positive outcomes. They didn’t waste their energy blaming; they took positive action … and replanted when necessary.

“The evasion of responsibility
is the major cause of most people’s frustrations and defeats.”

–Ayn Rand, author, philosopher

- TC North, Ph.D., High Performance Expert