“Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering.”
Anecdote from “Inside Apple”, Adam Lashinsky’s latest feature story in Fortune magazine:
Lashinsky mentions the speech Steve Jobs gives every time to a newly-appointed VP, which the author calls “Difference Between the Janitor and the Vice President.” The speech focuses on the distinction between “excuses” and “reasons”, and the amount of responsibility a VP has to handle in his every day job. When you become a VP you don’t have any excuse for your failures, and reasons stop mattering the moment you’re appointed. (from Macstories.net)
“Jobs imagines his garbage regularly not being emptied in his office, and when he asks the janitor why, he gets an excuse: The locks have been changed, and the janitor doesn’t have a key. This is an acceptable excuse coming from someone who empties trash bins for a living. The janitor gets to explain why something went wrong. Senior people do not. “When you’re the janitor,” Jobs has repeatedly told incoming VPs, “reasons matter.” He continues: “Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering.” That “Rubicon,” he has said, “is crossed when you become a VP.”
