I'm a very open and honest person. Whenever something comes across my path I try to give just about everything the benefit of the doubt. As soon as someone begins to make excuses for their behavior, is the most definitive point where I realize they no longer get that grace period.

I treat everyone as the US Constitution intended our justice system to run; innocent until proven guilty. But I do feel that giving excuse after excuse is one piece of evidence that an individual truly isn't up to the quality standard most people would strive to include in their life. I appreciate and value honesty and integrity in a person more than anything. Someone I can count on when something gets difficult for me because I'm the one friend that will follow through in a crucial moment when someone I know needs anything.

Someone that makes excuses is a person that isn't willing to own up to their mistakes. If you can't own up to a mistake how can you grow and develop as a person if you don't understand when you're making them? I've learned from my mistakes the hard way...a lot. There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in making them. I'm not perfect, nor am I ever trying to portray myself to be. It's the fundamental thing about being a human. But to completely disengage from the process of growing as a human being is simply ignorant and inconclusive to the fulfillment of your own life.

We all have those days when something comes up. Your dog chewed up something that you had to clean up before you could go to work. Someone got sick and it was out of your control and a project wasn't done on time because of their lack of effort. That's understandable. But instead of instantly resorting to an excuse to save your rear end with your boss or with a client, owning up to something on your own end is far more professional and respectful from the other side of things. But if you're constantly making excuses as a habit, you may just not have your priorities straight and it shows you're not learning from your mistakes.

It's tough to feel sympathy for someone that's constantly late or leaving early from work because of something that's "coming up." It's easier to hear a person out if they're saying "I know I'm late, I'm terribly sorry and I'll take necessary steps to make sure it doesn't happen again" sounds far better to "My dog ate everything at my house and I just couldn't leave without cleaning up. Damn dog." That makes it sound like you're blaming your tardiness on an outside party, and it displays a lack of accountability on your end. Plus, why blame the dog? They mostly do things out of love even if it pisses you off. They want attention and affection, not resentment.

When I played football in high school, I was a quarterback and when I first started playing the position I wanted to blame everything on someone else when things went wrong. I wanted to look good and maintain my position, just like everyone else did. But the thing I figured out, people responded better to things when I took the blame even if it wasn't necessarily my blame to take. If I threw a pass that was a little bit high or a little outside and it got dropped, I instantly would put the blame on myself and try and become better to make sure I hit them in the exact perfect spot the next time.

I held myself accountable. That accountability led me to throw more and more passes in my free time and perfecting my craft. So if I was making mistakes, they weren't very big ones. If we fumbled a handoff, it was my fault. If we fumbled a snap, it was my fault. That's okay because it forced me to focus on doing all the little things right. If you can't do the little things right you'll fail when it comes to doing the big trick plays on fourth down.

I'm not saying take the blame for other people's mistakes. But I'm telling you if you want to be a leader, and a good leader at that, you'll hold yourself accountable for your mistakes. People respect that out of a person.

Lead a crew of respectful individuals by your devout and intelligible example, don't lead by playing the name blame game. It's very easy to throw someone under the bus, but the true heroes are the ones that keep people on the sidewalk, heading in a progressing direction.