ID-698-John Miller

Q: For people that weren’t in the Engage call last month a little history. In that call there was a quote and a concept, _Only mediocre people are at their best all the time._ That really hit home because your point was we should go for it and we’re not always going to be at our best but we should try to be at our best and sometimes we make it. Then because we’re not always at our best there may be an opportunity for some criticism from some of our clients. In your opening remarks this morning I thought that I heard you say that to repeatedly set yourself up for criticism was sort of a form of self-sacrifice, which we don’t want to delve into.
A: I don’t have an encyclopedic recollection of what I said this morning but let me clarify. I did not mean to give the impression that inviting criticism was a form of self-sacrifice. I think it’s good to invite constructive criticism. We’re constantly doing surveys. We’re constantly asking you what we can do better. We’re constantly asking you to tell us when we make mistakes because we make a lot of mistakes as I think all of you should be making a lot of mistakes. Not making a lot of mistakes is not something that I think any entrepreneur should take a lot of pride in. I didn’t mean to give the impression that allowing people or inviting people to criticize you is a form of self-sacrifice.