Dependable

​Dependable
I said there were several things in the email from James Clear I thought I may touch on.  Little did I know that one day later I would be referring again to the email.
“You can carve out a very good career simply by being the most reliable person on the team. You would not think that always showing up on time, hitting every deadline, and responding quickly and professionally to all communication would be such a differentiator, but these traits are always in short supply.”
This is the difference between ability and reliability.  As long as a person shows some aptitude and a willingness to learn, I will choose reliability over ability every day.  Someone may be highly skilled at a task but unmotivated.  Another person may be average but wiling to learn.  That is the person I want.
There was someone I employed and the first day I thought “what have I done?”  But that person showed aptitude and a willingness to learn and was someone I would choose to work with me every time.  I know I was not alone in being impress by the work ethic, as the person was being head hunted while with me.
The above quote gives the impression of perfection.  In my experience that is never the case.  To me it is the willingness to learn from mistakes that is the difference (though I did see a cartoon where a kid said, “if I learn from my mistakes shouldn’t I make as many as possible?” “errr no kid.”
For me attitude makes the difference.  Someone does not need to be right every time but to want to and actively work towards being right every time.  To me it is about owning a task – about doing a good job not just to impress another but to impress themselves.
I find it easy to spot the difference between someone who cares and someone who simply does a task because they are told to and would rather being doing what they want to do.
I will never pretend that doing the right thing and having the right attitude is always easy, but I do know it is always worth it.