Let’s face it, we all know people who always seem to have an excuse for everything.  

The truth is that many of us are settling in life, whether it’s your job, your relationships, your abilities . . . There are too many people settling for less than they deserve or are capable of doing. They aren’t happy about it, but they make excuses for themselves so it seems all right.

One thing I do not tolerate in my life are excuses. Not for myself or from anyone else.  

Today is President’s Day so I thought it would be fitting to have a quote from George Washington who said, “99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”

I love this quote because the way I see it there are only two things in life, reasons or results, and results don’t lie. 

It look me years to train myself that there is never a perfect time to start a business. Yet, it is easy to make excuses for yourself. Here are a few that I had that may sound familiar to you: “I’ll do it when I have enough money, when my kids are out of college, when my house is paid off, when I turn 55 . . . ” 

In order to get out of this thought loop I had to change my perspective about failure. It wasn’t easy even though the evidence was all around me.

For example, at IGS we started a combined heat and power business and ended up with a very successful solar business. Looking back I don’t consider it a failure of CHP. We were able to pivot and adapt to the market. We didn’t make excuses. We used information to keep learning and moving forward. Simply put, we made our success.

Enerflo is the same way. It didn’t start as solar software platform. It started as something else, but evolved into what it is today. I am sure it would have been easy for the founders to throw in the towel, but the one-percenters don’t make excuses. They make progress.

You see, failure is not an option because the ones who are determined gather information and pivot to make the best of their circumstances.  

CAUTION:  You still need to put in the work. No one else is going to do it for you, and there is no easy button.

I suggest you start your journey by prioritizing how you spend your time.  By making the important things priorities you won’t need excuses because the critical things get done. The flip side of that is that anything that isn’t a priority doesn’t need an excuse for not getting done because it wasn’t important from the beginning.  

So this week reflect on this simple question, what are you doing to better your circumstances? 

As always, remember that you are limitless.

Welcome to the Limitless Podcast with Nathan Jovanelly.  Thanks for tuning in.