A little while ago I had an astonishingly frustrating conversation with someone working at one of the well-known large tech companies here in the Valley: He was complaining about how his company was unable to move his work into production, how his superiors were all morons who “didn’t get it” and how this whole thing was just a massive pile of crap.
Pause.
I have no idea if what he was telling me is true. I don’t know the people he’s working with or reporting to. The one thing I do know is that every single argument was about “them”. They didn’t get it. They are stupid. They block him. They are morons.
Never once did he talk about himself and his responsibilities.
Take responsibility for your actions. This might mean that you have to spend time and energy “selling” your idea to the people above you. It might mean that you need to spend energy to understand how your thing fits into the bigger picture. Or it might mean that if all the people around you are truly morons — you quit.
Whatever it is: Always take responsibility. Let the bucket stop with you.