It’s All About the Accountability Baby
I’m a guy that holds accountability above all. At a very young age, my parents blessed me with responsibilities, starting with a chore chart while I was in elementary school. The chart broke down each day and the duties varied between cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming the house, dusting all surfaces, cleaning every window, etc. If my chores were not complete, I was not going out to play with my friends, plain and simple. To ensure my brother and I completely understood these responsibilities, we were forced to sign the chore chart, thus engaging in my first formal contract. Yay me.
Sounds pretty basic right? Do the chores and you’re free. Wrong.
My step-mother, whether she didn’t trust my brother and I to do a good job or was trying to teach us something we would appreciate later in life, threw in a kicker. Not only did she make us sign our lives away on that child labor agreement, she added an extra layer of protection for her assets, after all it was her house. She added a blurb in to the contract stating that my brother and I would “check” each other's work to verify the job was completed to satisfaction. If I “checked” off Craig’s work and it was not sufficient, based on her standards, I would be the one at fault and would be penalized. These penalties typically started at a one week restriction to the house and became more harsh after multiple offenses.
As you can probably imagine, the temptation to go out and play with my friends was strong, but I obviously realized the repercussions were not worth cutting corners. So, just like teaching a child to swim by throwing him in the water (that’s another story for you guys), I was introduced to that ever so popular word “Accountability”.
Not only did this create ton of animosity towards our step-mother, because what kind of monster does this to 10 year olds, but it also formed tension between my brother and I. Oftentimes I would find myself doing my assigned chores as well as his to avoid being disciplined. This was not sustainable so we had to learn how to work together. Burrowed inside this lesson of accountability is where I built my foundation for teamwork, risk assessment, and most importantly leadership.
This lesson has stuck with me my entire life and has most definitely made me a better person. Thoroughly understanding what it is like to be relied upon at such an early age is an incredibly important lesson and will be something that I teach my children. As the years go by and the repercussions become more substantial, having adequate experience has only set me up for success.
Twenty years ago I never imagined I would be thanking my step-mother for being a slave driver, but I have to admit, the older I get the more I realize the lessons she was teaching us. So for that, thank you Mrs. Rose Cockey Burgman, you aren’t the monster I once thought you were ;)
