The C word

Criticism…….

Can you look in the mirror and criticize yourself, without getting down on yourself? As I sat in liturgy this Pentecost Sunday I was reminded of a couple other words that complimented this thought; practice and calibration.

To begin, I want to use a story my priest mentioned about the golfer Gary Player, one of my grandfather’s favorites that he use to encourage me to watch when I was a child. Even saw him in person at a tournament in Long Island. The priest mentioned that Gary Player was in a tough spot and hit a shot that a reporter called lucky. Gary’s response was “the more I practice, the more lucky they say I am.” What the golfer was referencing, is that his practice and discipline made that tough shot possible, it really didn’t have much to do with luck as the reporter suggested.

This is life, and especially business. People often look from the outside saying people of success are lucky or privileged. In respect to faith, the more we truly practice our faith showing up every week and hopefully everyday for those that can, we become more resilient in tough situations, since we have taken the time to practice our faith, which will lead us through adversity with awareness. In respect to business it’s pretty much the same, which is why so many corporations have copied the structure of the Catholic Church. Technically it’s the world’s largest franchise with a 2000 year track record, including some very challenging moments. Accountability and God always steers the mothership straight.

Back to criticism. If we are willing to be honest and look in the mirror and acknowledge our weakness, it’s only then we can fix it before it drags us into a hole of no return. I consistently share a story about my friend. He owned a pizza shop that was around for 30 years, but things at the end were getting bad until one day he shows up and he’s locked out of his business due to falling behind on the bills. Prior to that my friend blamed it on his competition like the franchises and some other things, but never saw how poor and inefficient his business had grown. In addition he never adapted, despite my free consultation which I gave him a simple 3 page report of everything I noticed in his store over a one year span. I was just offering what I had learned in my career of managing 33 failing businesses, 31 of which I successfully turned around.

AA meetings follow a similar suit with the 12 steps to fixing our lives, which were derived from Christianity, and in many respects very sacramental in a vague sense that applies to everyone. If you want to grow, from the current place of unhappiness you are experiencing, reality is you first have to admit there’s a problem. Once you are able to do that honestly, you can then start to recalibrate your situation. While miracles do happen, and luck can strike at times, the majority of life is based on choices good and bad, that will lead to consequences good and bad 99% of the time.

In these moments, there’s always one common denominator, YOU! If you haven’t practiced life and business properly, you’re bound to feel stuck in a losing situation. However winners that discipline and practice good ways, always lift themselves out of the negative situations they are in momentarily. I encourage you, try something different today, make that confession that will criticize the potential wrong in your life/business and find a new beginning with that burden lifted. We all get it wrong sooner or later, we’re human. This is original sin by the way, if Adam would’ve just said sorry I messed up, all would’ve been well, instead he blamed his wife, she blamed the serpent and so on and so on…………

I used this image, because it’s a reminder of how we as a country messed up. We allowed Japan to attack us due to doubt in our technology at time. However we eventually regrouped and won the war when they awoke the sleeping giant in the USA (their own words). Many of us are sleeping giants, not living up to our potential. Sometimes it takes adversity to make us aware of that.