A couple weeks back, some friends and I went to a local bar to watch a college football game. Clearly we weren’t the only fans who had the idea. The place was packed, shoulder to shoulder.
About twenty minutes into the game, a big play occurred and shouted out a cheer. Of course, prior to the celebratory yell I needed to suck in tons of air. Something I regret. As I drew that deep breath I felt the burning of my nostril hairs. Someone had one too many bean tacos, or beers, or both.
You can imagine the scene right after. Finger pointing-fest 2009.
“Dude, that was you.”
“No, it was you.”
“No way.”
“Not it.”
“If it was me, I would brag about it!”
Everyone denies the public fart. Yet the person who does it could clearly rectify the situation by just admitting it. Or better yet, giving people fair warning. But it is too embarrassing. They just let others suffer the consequences… like tearing eyes, lost appetite and the agony of being wrongly accused.
Here’s the entrepreneurial lesson: Sometimes our businesses make big stinkin’ mistakes, yet we simply keep our mouths shut out of embarrassment. Our customers smell the problem, but never know we’re the source. And like a bar room fart, finger pointing and anger ensues. Instead of confessing we try to cloak our red face and go into denial. Or even try to blame our best friend (that’s the customer if you haven’t figured it out).
Long term successful entrepreneurs accept immediate responsibility for their mistakes, even if no one would have known otherwise. The reason is they know you will gain respect when you come clean immediately. And the sooner the better. Could you imagine the bar room offender shouting out at the moment of the foul “Clear out everyone! We only have seconds here, CLEAR OUT!” The red-faced liar would have been the bar room hero. Shoot, I would have bought him a beer (but just asked that he drink it outside, in case there was planning an encore event).
By Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
