you have my word.

As I sit here on the deck of the family cottage with no one else around for a while, I was trying to plow through some work to make the most of the time I was given to be alone. As a break from the work stuff, I surfed. It’s how you pick up all those tidbits of inane knowledge that makes my wife shake her head with some of the things I know about.

Anyways I viewed a couple of videos by Richard Robbins. And there was a less than 2 minute clip of one of his presentations. But it was a good one. He was talking about the influence his father had on his life ( one I hope that I have on my daughter’s) and how his father gave him some advice as he was working for him at one of the family’s gas stations one summer. Richard didn’t do something his father asked him to and when confronted, he simply said he didn’t have enough time. His father, like all of us, know this wasn’t true. So he told him that in life you’ll never produce excuses and results. You gotta pick  Either your life will be about excuses or results. He went on to talk about one of the greatest qualities of a person or an employee is when they say they are going to do something, that you don’t have to worry about it again because you know it will be done.

I was thinking that this really goes back to the “old fashioned” quality of being true to your word. Just hearing myself say that made me feel that it seems like it has been so long since I heard it from anyone. You have my word. It’s kind of an honour thing. It is based on your reputation – not your brand, or your standard, but your reputation. It’s who you are as a person. It is something to be honoured in the face of time or money or the next best thing. It is following through on your commitment to a higher cause. In the age of next and faster and what’s in it for me, it is becoming more and more of a faded idea. I see it in the people that are looking for work. I see it in the next generation of teenagers. I see it by just walking the streets.

Everyday as I think about what kind of dad I want to be and what kind of values I want my daughter to live by, this one would have to be near the top of the list. Call it integrity. Call it Accountability  Call it Follow Through. It is about putting in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay and just doing what you say you are going to do. Be someone that others can count on. Be someone you can count on to be respect ful, industrious and successful.