“Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.”

–     Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer (1749-1832)

Blame is a losing game, as evidenced in one of the best movie clips in history.  (Seriously, if this scene with Peter Sellers doesn’t make you laugh…)

Responsibility, on the other hand, is a winner.

When we take responsibility, it provides focus.  When we take responsibility, it provides clarity.  When we take responsibility, it makes excuses impossible.

When we take responsibility, it makes our part of the whole world clean.

When we take responsibility, we make a difference.

“It’s the end of the world as we know it…”

–     Lyric to R.E.M.’s song of the same title

“Oh, Heaven is a place on earth…”

–     Lyric to Belinda Carlisle’s song of the same title

As I type this post, I have no idea the outcome of last night’s elections.  I don’t know who won, and I realize that even as you read this post, we still might not know.

Whatever the outcome, but based upon that outcome, many people will wake up believing one or the other of these two lyrics.

They’ll be wrong.

It won’t be the end of the world if “the other guy” got elected / re-elected.  Oh, yes, I can debate it’s pretty damned close in one instance, and some of my friends could debate, from their perspective, the other side.  And, even if “my guy” won, Heaven won’t be a place on earth.  You can look that one up.  Heaven has no ZIP code.  We gotta wait and take the spiritual shuttle to get there.

So, if it ain’t the end of the world, and if it also ain’t paradise-on-earth, what are we left to do?

As a nation, we have big problems.  They won’t be solved by whatever happened yesterday and last night.  They won’t be solved by one set of beliefs or another.  The problems we face don’t have single-threaded solutions.

Instead, the big problems the USA faces will require us to work together to establish a better direction, and to work from the middle to get headed in a better direction.

Whatever problems we face in our businesses, marriages, relationships,health, etc are best solved via that same approach.

How much of a difference will it make when each of us reaches out to one person today, and when we come together toward a mutually beneficial outcome?  In politics.  In business.  In life.

Oh, and one more thing.  It’s over.  Hush up.  Take your yard signs down.  Today.  Right this instant, take your yard signs the heck down.  Get on with the business of life, and let’s all do our best to make a difference for someone “on the other side” of something today.

“If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.”

–     Geddy Lee, lead singer from Rush, in “Free Will”

“Game on!”

     –     Garth, to Wayne, and Wayne, to Garth, in the street hockey scene from “Wayne’s World”

And, the game is, in fact on.  Pull the handle.  Fill in the circles.  Get your “I voted” sticker and wear it proudly on your lapel.  And then realize that when you wake up tomorrow, the media you consume will look, sound and feel very different.  That alone is reason enough to vote, just knowing that the cheap-shot, undermining, negative, inaccurate and half-truth political ads are over for awhile.

Yes, I realize that it’s an out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire scenario, because we’ll be lambasted with ads for the next “big Christmas toy.”  But, if they start running ads for fingernails on chalkboard audio tapes, I’ll be tempted to buy, as long as I don’t have to listen to or see any more political ads.

Before I propose a solution, let me just say that I don’t like rules.  I believe we ought to have precious few of them.  Golf’s rules are pretty solid, but there are at least two too many of them.  Baseball’s rules are almost perfect (in the National League, at least).  Parliamentary procedure seems to work, but only eleven people on earth know how to manage it.  Rules are not my friend.  Offsides in soccer makes no sense to me, and I still don’t know why they still have a  rule called “traveling” in the NBA.  Therefore, I don’t think we need many rules.  Not many at all.  Ten seems a good number, if they could be written in stone…  (Just sayin’…)

Still, with today’s Daily Difference, I’m proposing that we add one rule for all subsequent elections.

In your political ads, you can not mention your opponent’s name.  You can not imply whether he or she is an idiot, no matter how much empirical proof there might be that he or she is, indeed, an idiot.  You can not use innuendo, nor can you use a “statistic.”  (“Figures lie and liars figure,” Dad used to say…)

In your political ads, you can talk about your idea.  Your belief.  Your plan.  And that’s all.

I’m Steve Heston, and I approve this message.

“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.  It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

–     Sir Winston Churchill

“If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch and complain.”

–     Dick Heston

Tomorrow, in case you missed the 6,795 political ads you were exposed to this weekend, is election day.

On every election day from 1982 until Dad died in 2002, Mom and Dad offset each others’ votes.  I speculate that my grandmother and grandfather offset each others vote for about 60 years or so.  Heck, my sister and brother-in-law carry on the tradition today.

It cracks me up.

It also makes me appreciate what we have.

We have an obligation.

They could just stay home.  It would not impact the outcome.  But they didn’t, they don’t, they shouldn’t and they won’t.  They understand.  They “get it.”  They remember that people died and gave up fortunes and invested their whole lives building a nation where we all get to vote.

Look, that’s the best thing about a democracy; everyone gets a vote.  The worst thing about a democracy, as Churchill points out, is that everyone gets a vote.  But don’t just vote tomorrow so you can “bitch and complain” if your guy doesn’t win.  Vote because you have an obligation to engage in the debate and to try to make a difference.

A friend said recently, “My vote might actually count this year.”

I reminded him that it does.  Every year.

“If all are equal, then why strive?”

–     Thomas Peterffy, 68-year old emigre from Socialist Hungary and founder of Interactive Brokers

He’s paid over $1.9 billion in taxes since coming to America, and he’s not a conservative.

He does have an interesting take on this election though, and it spills over to the whole “participation trophy” direction in which we’re headed.

Competition is good.  Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but if there’s no incentive to strive, why even show up?

Know anyone who’s ever lost a job?  Who’s ever lost a deal?  Know anyone who’s ever did their best and still lost a job or a deal?  We all do, of course.  Someone else got that job.  Someone else got that deal.  So, why do some people want our kids to get done with school thinking that everyone wins every time?  And why would we want them to think that life is always going to be fair?  It isn’t, or so I’ve noticed.

If life was fair, my parents would have seen their 70’s.  If life was fair, I could have thrown a slider, and played baseball for money.  If life was fair, the original Miami Vice would have aired forever and CheezWhiz would flow from water fountains in every park in the land.

Life isn’t fair.  So, when we tell kids that everyone always gets a trophy, and when we tell 68-year-old emigres who’ve paid $1.9 billion in taxes that they aren’t paying “their fair share,” we ought to be ready for some pretty harsh backlash.

Look, I don’t care who you vote for, as long as you vote (more on that tomorrow), but Thomas’ perspective is worth considering.

“The world is a dangerous place.  Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

–     Albert Einstein

Back in the 1970’s, Noel Burch of Gordon Training International, portrayed the four stages of competence.

First, we’re unconsciously incompetent.  We stink at something and we don’t know why.  We need a teacher.

Then, we become consciously incompetent.  We still stink, but we understand where to improve.  We need a mentor.

Next, we become consciously competent.  We can do it, and we know why.  We need to teach.

Finally, we become unconsciously competent.  We can do it in our sleep.  We need to be challenged.  We need to be careful.

Why?

Because, if we’re not careful, there’s a fifth stage.  Complacency.  We need slapped!

“If I had more time, I’d write a shorter letter.”

–     Mark Twain

We’re ready, right?  I mean, we’re loaded for bear, ready to fire off that e-mail reply.  You know, the one from that jerk that always copies half the civilized world on his messages?  We’re SO ready, we’re even going to “reply all.”

Oh, boy, are we ready!

Would it make a difference if we wrote a shorter letter?  To fewer people?

It will take more thought.  It will take more time.  It will also be more better.  For us, and the recipient.

It’s the difference between a response and a reaction.  Clarity over quantity.  Quality over mass.

“Pressure is a privelege.”

–     Larry Fitzgerald, NFL Wide Receiver

Granted, the Cardinals got completely thumped Monday night, but in the pre-game show, Jon Gruden’s interview with Larry Fitzgerald contained this tidbit from a pretty impressive, hard-working modern athlete.

Granted, on the athletic or performing arts stage, it’s easy to understand what Fitzgerald means.

Granted, in our lives, no one is buying tickets to watch us work.

All that said, what if we looked at “pressure” as a privilege?

That might make a difference.

“Can’t never did no such a thing.”

–     Richard “Dick” Heston (1933-2002), a Southeast Iowa farmer

“Can’t died the year before I went to the country school.”

–     Parse DeJong ( 1920-2006), a Northeast Iowa (then Wisconsin) Presbyterian Pastor 

Opposite corners of the state.  Same perspective.

If you think you can, you might.  If you say you can’t, you’re done.

These two products of one-room school houses sum up the most significant ingredient in accomplishment with these two quirky lines.

During baseball season this past summer, I broke one of them out on The Middle of The Three Who Will Not Be Tamed.  In the midst of a major batting slump (the kind that can bring a 9-year-old to tears — not to mention his coach/father…) he pronounced, “Daddy, I can’t hit.”

I started to launch in to my polished, compelling “positive attitude” speech, “Yes, you can, son.  You have to believe in yourself….blah, blah, Zig Ziglar “check up from the neck up…”.

Instead, I thought, “Gee, I wonder what Dad would say?”  And I remembered, because I heard it precisely 47,311 times as a younger man:  “You know what your PaPa Rich would say?  He’d say, “Can’t never did no such a thing.”

Our 9-year-old cleanup hitter looked me in the eye and said, “Daddy, that is NOT good English.”

I explained that no, it wasn’t, but what Grandpa meant was you had to believe you could accomplish something in order to do it.

There was a pause.  I expected excuses, a complete subject change or for him to say, “Dad, you’re losing your mind…”

Instead, he said, “Well, I CAN hit —- I’m just not hitting right now.”

Next game.  3-for-4, double, triple, game winning hit.

Thanks, Dad.  Thanks, Parse.  You guys STILL make a difference.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

–     Andre Gide, 1947 Nobel Prize Winner (Literature)  (1869-1951)

We’ve all “seen” the light bulb flash on above someone’s head.

So, how do we make it happen more often?

The answer will have a lot to do with how much time we spend creating an idea-friendly environment in which the light bulb is more likely to illuminate.  Among the best ways to create an idea-friendly environment is to divorce ourselves from what we know “must be true.”  We gotta figuratively lose sight of the shore and sail out to deeper waters of our creativity.

On some level, Thomas Edison knew “it couldn’t be done.”  On some level, Steve Jobs knew that my entire shelving unit of CD’s just couldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) fit on a device the size of a pack of gum.  When their light bulb first flashed on, they still knew, on some level, they might be wrong, because the reality in which they lived told them, “factually” that they were.

They simply had the courage to ask, “What if we’re right?” and “How would we do it if we could?”

So, on some level, we know that our efficiency ratio, margin, sales cycle, close rate, top line, bottom line or expense structure could be better.  But our boss, co-worker, or industry peer reports tell us we’re wrong.  Just like all the people around Edison knew he was wrong.  Just like people around Jobs knew he was.  Sitting in the glow of electric light, with their iPods playing their entire music library, the people around us just know we’re wrong.

If we want to find out whether we’re right, we’d better create an environment in our mind where we might find a way to make a difference.

Then, we can focus on how to go about it.

I’m not suggesting it’s easy.  I’m just sayin’ it’s important.