The common denominator of failure is; I figured it out: it is excuses. Let me explain to you what I mean. If you wake up tomorrow morning and say that your business is failing because of Obama, because of Congress, because of the recession, because of the construction industry, because of the euro, whatever the hell you come up with, you have no reason to change. But if you look in the mirror tomorrow morning and say, “I’m failing because of me,” you’re not going to like it, and then you have a reason to change. Nine out of ten people who are failing blame their failure on somebody else. And that is the common denominator of failure.

As long as your failure is somebody else’s fault, there’s no reason to change. So once I look them in the face and make them say and really believe that they are a failure, they don’t like it. Nobody likes a failure, especially not thinking of yourself that way. - John Taffer