Quote of the Day

A man may fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
~ John Burroughs

WOW!!!! How many times have YOU been blamed for something someone else FAILED doing? I don't mean like when you're mom said, "Someone clean the kitchen," and your little brother told you he'd do it and didn't, but when Mom asked, he said, "She said she was going to." I mean when someone failed at something and they blamed you for their failure.

I can't even begin to list the number of things I've had blamed on me; things that happened in different cities, different states... even different countries.

I used to have a client when I represented speedskaters, and when he was having a tough time during training (in Holland & China), he told me it was my fault. Let me point out that I was back here in the US, and that season was the BEST SEASON OF HIS ENTIRE 21 YEARS IN SKATING!!! Let me also say that, in my book, if I have to take responsibility for his bad skating, shouldn't I be given credit for his good skating, as well, especially since I was living my life in my time zone and his, which ever it was at the time with all his traveling to competitions and training, and doing EVERYTHING for him while he was gone for a year "stationed" in Holland? Apparently, we didn't see eye-to-eye on that one, and this how my best-friend Ami and I came up with the joke about me having "super powers".

Actually, one year ago today, my ex-husband's best friend was in a car accident in Chicago, and that was, once again, MY FAULT!!! Get this... I was in my city in TEXAS, a good 1500 miles away, and because I sent "the friend", who hates me (the good Jew that he is), a text message in a blinding snow storm that he was driving in, and HE CHECKED IT, it's my fault he had the wreck!!! Now, you tell me, what in the hell was a guy FROM ISRAEL who'd been in Chicago less than a month driving in a blinding snow storm? And on top of that, why did he check a text message while driving? Can you say STUPID??? Oh, and by the way, I did know exactly how the events would unfold... because of my super powers. And for those of you who didn't get that joke, it was sarcasm. Needless to say, "the friend" convince "the husband" it was my fault, and we didn't speak for about a week. It was ridiculous. Even my mother-in-law said her son... her ONLY son out of 4 children, who is also the baby, was ridiculous for placing the blame on me. But, I'll tell ya... Watch out if you get super powers. They'll get you in trouble every time!!!!

There are MANY, MANY other examples I could share, but these are two of the best, funniest and easiest to explain. My point is that EVERYONE fails. That's a part of life. Go back to the Michael Jordan post. He didn't even start on his high school basketball team. Look at Babe Ruth. He held the home run title for years, but he also held the strike-out record. It's only when you blame other's for your failure that you have truly failed, because by then you can't even accept your responsibility, and more than likely, you've given up/quit. And what's worse than quitting? Anything??? I don't think so.

Sidenote: There is a time and a place to stop, but that isn't the same as giving up/quitting, but that's for another day.

Mazal Tov!!!