It’s your fault

That’s the active tense version. Put it in the passive, and it comes out more like “It wasn’t my fault!” The other variants of this delightful little thought are things like “Don’t blame me!” or “He made me do it!” I don’t hear. “It’s my fault - I’ll sort it out” too often.

Based on my assessment of human nature (i.e. that we’re all maybe just a little bit rotten at heart) I calculate that I’ve caused pain for others [calculating . . . ] 497,273,325 times so far in my life, and counting. Not a pleasant thought, especially when those closest to me remind me of this propensity to, well, screw up.

When I first started Go Kiwi Internet, I spent the first couple of years paying a couple of goons who were supposed to be experienced Sales Managers. The first guy came all recommended. He checked out with two personnell agencies and had all the credentials. Dead-duck. Second guy was a little more slippery - pocketed the cash and the same thing - no sales. So I did all the work and they took the money. Not very good for business eh? Unfortunately the buck stopped with me. My fault, even though the others were the ones who didn’t do the right thing.

When I setup the Content Management System (Kwik-Az Updating) we had a march on the industry - less than 5% of web development companies offered CMS in those days - and we had enormous difficulty getting meaningful relationships with other developers using our systems. It seemed like everyone we worked with came and went and a truckload of investment into people and training wasn’t effective in the long run. We did nothing wrong as I see it, but the buck still stopped with me.

Choosing the wrong CMS systems too, has cost us dearly. Yeah, sure we’ve learnt heaps from the various experiences but they were costly mistakes none the less. And seeing as I’m the boss, I’ve gotta take the rap.

I’m not the only one to screw something up though.

When Adam was a cowboy, he messed up - just a little bit. In fact quite a little bit. Sufficiently enough of a screw-up to have God Himself wander down into Adam’s own turf to let him face the music face-to-face. Now my understanding is that nobody who is a sinner can look God in the face and live. Adam got that message quick smart, but before he got the bad news, he managed to off-load the blame a little - onto his wife. “You got the wrong guy, Lord! You ought to speak to my wife about that apple thing. It’s her fault!”

And of course, now that the example had been set, Eve behaves like a dutiful wife should and respects her husband’s value system responding in like manner:

Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:11a-13

Ouch!

First up, even though it may have been true, Adam dumped on the very woman that the Lord sent to help him. Not a smart move really - it set a pattern for Eve, and I’m sure as sure as sure that from that moment on Eve would have made his life hell never have let him forget it too.

Secondly he tried to get out of something that he had no chance of getting out of. Pick your fights Adam, my friend! It would have been a lot better to fess-up and take the rap.

The interesting thing though is the the Lord didn’t stop to discuss it all. It seems to me that the Lord thought that there wasn’t really any point in playing the blame-game. He just listened to the excuses and then spoke. What a lesson for us then. They screw-up. He knows this but just gets on with living.

Wow! So simple. So fresh, pragmatic, efficient and sensible. No politics or BS. I love it.

The VICTUS IN AMBITUS way then is to face the facts, and just get on with living.