Back in the days of the early Roman Empire, when prisoners were captured and forced to fight to their death, the fighters would often be given a choice. They could either face the lions or walk through the big red door. Almost every single prisoner chose to face the lions. Why? Because of uncertainty and fear of the unknown. The unknown is often worse than the known, no matter what the “unknown” might turn out to be. What was behind the big red door? Freedom.

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

You can’t allow yourself to be bullied away from venturing into the unknown simply because you fear the accountability that will result. It is tough and it is scary, but accountability often is what stands between you and freedom. Sometimes the curve ball will curve, and sometimes it’ll hit you smack in the nose. Either way, savor the accountability resulting from your choice to “stay in.”

Porter’s Points – The Big Red Door

• Don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from accepting accountability.
• Make a list of the reasons you want to become an entrepreneur. As you review your list, analyze the trade-offs. Is what you want a fair exchange for the amount of accountability you are willing to assume?

And yet the more you shrink from it, the easier it becomes. The voice inside gets softer and softer until you fool yourself into thinking that not being accountable is okay—or, worse yet, that you’re doing all that could be expected of you. The result is that you replace the exhilarating sensation of accountability with the uninspiring sense of apathy. As a business owner and leader, you must not allow yourself to be fooled. You must learn how to be accountable yourself and how to hold your employees, partners, and vendors accountable.

One of my favorite, real-life examples of taking personal accountability comes out of the aviation industry. This story depicts one CEO who stayed in, took the curve ball on the nose, and exemplified accountability to self, company, stockholders, and customers.

In February of 1999 David Neeleman founded JetBlue Airways with the intent “to bring humanity back to air travel.” Further elaborating on its commitment to customer service, Neeleman later said,

It’s a new kind of low-fare airline. JetBlue will offer wider seats, more legroom, and more overhead storage space than any other airline in its class and, with 24 channels of live in-flight television, you’ll never have to miss your favorite show on the road. What’s more, our aircraft are some of the world’s quietest, most emission-friendly passenger jets.

In an ad specific to the citizens of New York City, he committed to the following:

We want to be New York’s new low-fare, hometown airline. JetBlue will bring to the city a superior product…

What happened on and around February 14, 2007, was anything but a sweetheart customer service story. Here are a few less-than-stellar low points, as reported by a variety of news agencies:

• Over 500 JetBlue passengers were stranded on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport for six-plus hours.
• During the ensuing six-day meltdown, over 1,000 JetBlue flights were canceled.
• By that Sunday, hundreds of bags belonging to JetBlue customers who had checked into flights that were eventually canceled were stacked outside JetBlue’s Baggage Services office.
• Hundreds of JetBlue flights were delayed. Passengers were frustrated and shocked by the extent of the delays

Bringing humanity back to the air travel?  The business impact was, to say the least, expensive. The company’s stock fell five percent. During ensuing interviews, Neeleman acknowledged weaknesses in the company’s communications and flight reservation system and vowed to invest the millions of dollars necessary to bring the airline up to speed.

Put yourself in Neeleman’s shoes. What would you have done as the CEO in this situation? Do you send the public relations folks in to handle the mess? Does the VP of customer service get called upon to shield you from the wrath of the irate customers? Do you ignore the fiasco and hope it goes away? Do you point fingers at operations and lop off a few heads along the way?

Here’s what David Neeleman did;

Dear JetBlue Customers,

We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue’s seven-year history. Many of you were either stranded, delayed or had flights canceled following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast. The storm disrupted the movement of aircraft, and, more importantly, disrupted the movement of JetBlue’s pilot and in-flight crewmembers who were depending on those planes to get them to the airports where they were scheduled to serve you. With the busy President’s Day weekend upon us, rebooking opportunities were scarce and hold times at 1-800-JETBLUE were unusually long or not even available, further hindering our recovery efforts.

Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that you, your family, friends and colleagues experienced. This is especially saddening because JetBlue was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel, and making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.

We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties. Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights—our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational interruptions going forward—including details of compensation. We invite you to learn more at jetblue.com/promise.

You deserved better – a lot better – from us last week and we let you down. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to once again welcome you onboard and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.

Sincerely,
David Neeleman
Founder and CEO

And, to top it off, Neeleman followed up his heartfelt apology with pocket-felt actions. He announced what he estimated would cost between twenty and thirty million dollars to revamp procedures for handling interruptions in service. Before the month was out JetBlue Airways voluntarily offered forty million dollars in refunds and vouchers to impacted passengers and gave wings to JetBlue’s “Customer Bill of Rights.”

We’re going to offer something that no other airline will offer customers… We’re going to be held accountable with laser beam focus… we want to do it because it’s the right thing to do.

Now that is accountability. No hiding, no transparency, not waffling, no pointing fingers—just plain old refreshing, effective, personal accountability. Thank you, David Neeleman!

Porter’s Points – You Are Accountable

• The first time you shoulder accountability, it may seem difficult. But the more you accept it, the easier it becomes to accept.
• Stay in and, if necessary, take the curve ball on the nose.
• Be accountable—and then some. Exceed what those you are accountable to expect from you.

Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? If you answered, “To be my own boss,” or “to be able to do things my way,” that’s okay, but you need to remember that this kind of freedom comes with a price. In short, personal ownership equals personal accountability. Accountability means not affixing blame and finding solutions instead. It is doing the right thing because it’s the right thing. It is taking ownership of your choices and all of the resulting consequences. There’s no “pick and choose” here.

I am—and Rich is—fascinated by people who, without concern for the outcome, just do the right thing. I am also intrigued by those who, in an effort to avoid being held accountable, do whatever (right or wrong) it takes to avoid accountability. It is our belief that many people choose to not be accountable because they fear the unknown. If you fear accountability, it follows that you will fear entrepreneurship.

In the beginning, entrepreneurship can seem like a deep, dark pit of accountability. There aren’t very many sure bets to be had when starting your own venture, but there is always this one: for better or for worse, you are responsible for whatever happens. Among the things you’ll put on the line are your money, your reputation, and your motivation. Some, after embarking on their own entrepreneurial journey, look accountability in the face and turn tail and run back to the comfortable, secure corporate world.

For some, accountability is an acquired taste. To really enjoy it, you must learn to trust yourself, your judgment, your partners, and your venture. When you get the mixture just right, it can be quite sweet, even exhilarating. You’ll learn to savor the thrill of making decisions and standing behind them, knowing that you’re personally accountable. You might just decide you wouldn’t have it any other way.

The tendency for far too many individuals is to avoid accountability rather than embrace it. Following are some examples of avoiding and embracing accountability Rich and I have witnessed during our personal experience in the corporate world. As you review these, consider which side of the ledger you find yourself on. What about your employees? What about your vendors or partners? Do you avoid or embrace accountability? What about those you rely on? Here’s the bottom line: make accountability personal to you and those  you deal with. Here are some clear indicators that will help you identify when accountability is being embraced and when it’s not.

Avoiding Accountability

1. “That’s not my job.”
2. “I can’t find anything to do.”
3. “Why do we need a self-improvement class at work?”
4. “When is upper management going to get it right?”
5. “I’ve been working here a year, and I still don’t have a job description – what am I supposed to be doing anyway?”
6. “Whose stupid idea was this team-building activity?”
7. And even: “No, don’t bother me about that until tomorrow. I go home too soon to worry about it right now.

Embracing Accountability

1. “I’d love to help, what do you need me to do?”
2. “I did it because it needed doing.”
3. “I’m glad the company is providing us the opportunity to learn and apply self-improvement techniques.”
4. “Maybe upper management hasn’t made the right choice because they don’t have enough data. How can we help them get that data?”
5. “No, I don’t have a job description. I’ve just observed and determined where we needed help and jumped in.”
6. “Yes, I’d love to participate in a team-building activity!”

I remember a great teaching moment that occurred at one of my son’s baseball games. Jory was in the batter’s box, waiting for the pitch. The pitcher let the ball go, and it headed straight for Jory’s head. Jory thought, “curve ball,” and stayed in the box. At the last second, the ball didn’t curve! He took the ball in the face, which broke his nose. As my son and I sat in the emergency room, I tried to make him feel better, “That was a really good job, son.” Jory, peering at me quizzically, remarked, “Dad, I got hit in the face with the ball!” “Yeah,” I told him. “But you stayed in the box!”

Accountability can sometimes feel like a curve ball to the face. Or, more accurately, a failed curve ball. It might hurt, but the satisfaction of “staying in” is far greater than the fleeting feeling of safety as you jump out of the way of accountability.