Who stole the meat from the cooking pot?

Who stole the meat from the cooking pot?            

Mr. Nobody

Nobody wants to be wrong

Nobody wants to take responsibility for a mistake.

Nobody wants to take the blame.

Yet, one attribute that every true leader must possess is the ability to take responsibility for his or her mistakes.

 Back then in school, a friend of mine used to make this statement whenever she was cooking, ‘if this soup (or whatever she was cooking) is delicious, na me cook am but if it isn’t, na you cook am’’ jokingly. This is however a hilarious illustration of how easy it is to pass the buck.

 Have you ever wondered why it is so easy to take credit for a job well done than to own up to a mistake? In my opinion, it takes bravery to accept responsibility for one’s faults.

 We often hide our mistakes from other people because we worry they will think less of us once they’ve seen that we’ve messed up. But, frankly acknowledging your mistakes, apologizing for them, and then earnestly working to make things right almost always has the opposite effect – people respect you for it. There might still be consequences, of course, but people will appreciate your honesty. If they use your confession as a way to belittle and use you, those are probably not the kind of people you want to work/live with anyway. It’s actually when you hide your mistakes, and they’re found out  that people lose their respect and their trust in you. 
 You might be wondering why the title of this article is so long... Well, I had a hard time concluding on which of the two titles to use because when I thought of this topic, the first thing that came to my mind was one of the games we used to play back then in school where at least 8 – 10 of us formed a big circle {like your mother’s cooking pot}, numbered ourselves and sang the song #who stole the meat from the cooking pot? Number 1 stole the meat from the cooking pot…# and we went on passing the buck till someone got disqualified and  we had the last man standing. Hmmm.... did that strike a chord?... some of us still relish those jolly old times...*winks*

                Then I thought of the poem “Mr Nobody’’ too. The poem is a perfect description of the thoughts running through my head. The plates obviously didn’t grow legs all of a sudden and trip before they broke, and the meat didn’t grow wings and decide to fly away! there were unidentified persons responsible for them. So, I'll let you decide which of the titles fits best.

                The most important thing is that the point is driven home...
 Accepting that you’re wrong, whether subtly or openly, is an inevitable attribute for every leader. Don’t make another suffer for your wrong. After all, every true leader knows that mistakes are part of life and if you are afraid of making them, you won’t learn anything. Did I just hear you say "Well, I'm not a leader or a boss so..." sweetheart, this is not just about bosses and leaders, it applies to everyone who has a reason to work with people. Besides, being a leader is not just about occupying an executive position in an organization, we all have someone or a group of people looking up to us somewhere some how. It could be at home, in the place of worship or even at school. Mistakes are just reminders that you are human and are still fallible. So, don’t be afraid to make them and take responsibility. Howbeit, you become a failure when you don’t learn from your mistakes because falling down is how we learn, standing up is how we grow and staying down is how we die. 

 Coming soon...
 "The diary of a green horn"  stay tuned.