It doesn’t matter if you run a company or sort letters in the mail room; succeeding in what you do starts with taking ownership of the task.
You do it, therefore you do it well.
It doesn’t matter what other people are doing or what senseless roadblocks are placed in your way by dumb policies or ill-chosen leaders. What you do represents your ability, commitment, and, ultimately, your potential to do something more.
Tom Williams began working for Apple Computer at the tender age of fourteen. While his relationship with the company eventually soured and he was forced out before the age of twenty, he refused to look past himself as the cause.
“I can’t stand people who play the victim. None of this was anybody’s choice but mine. No matter how impressionable or naive I have been, it has always been my decision.”
At twenty-one, Tom works for a venture capital firm, evaluating the feasibility of new projects. He enjoys the great personal responsibility of the position; his recommendations could gain or lose millions for the company. “It’s the decisions I make, good or bad, that give me the life I lead, not the economy, not a company, not anything else.”
Satisfaction with work improved by 34 percent when employees felt they were individually responsible for their work output.
McCaw 1999