Flip the Switch: Unleash the POWER of Personal Accountability

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Over the past week as The QBQ! Workbook, the 5th edition of QBQ!, and Raising Accountable Kids all launched, Kristin and I did a bunch of radio interviews.

(All found here: QBQ.com/News)

One interviewer asked a very astute question. He said, “So, isn’t it true, John, that when we don’t engage in personal accountability, we give away our personal power?”

I said, “Bob, you couldn’t be more on target.” Then I went off on a two-minute “radio rant.”

Using the word POWER as an acrostic, let me communicate the POWER of the QBQ! book and its message of PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY.

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15 Years Later: The Enduring Power of Personal Accountability

October 18, 2016: Everything Is New At QBQ! Full Display here.

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Launch Day: Then and Now

On a sunny Colorado April day in 2001, the Millers posed for some pics of each of us holding the brand new QBQ! book. I’d just picked them up myself at the printer in Boulder. Self-published author!

My favorite image is little 2-year-old Tasha (lower pic, in Kristin’s arms)—now a senior in high school—pushing the book to the sky! So proud, I’m sure.

And then 3-year-old Jazzy—now in college—hiding behind her book down in front!

Fun stuff.

Little did we know that fine day that 15 years later we’d be able to hold up another version of the QBQ! book—the fifth one.

In the image below (left to right) you can see the five editions:

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  1. That original 2001 smallest hardcover, made in Boulder.
  2. The 2002 paperback buyers still ask for now and then.
  3. The first edition by Penguin in NYC—returned to hardcover in 2004
  4. The rewritten and improved 2012 version by Penguin/Putnam.
  5. The best edition—rewritten again with a fresh look—hot off the PenguinRandomHouse press on Oct 18, 2016!

Can’t do a family photo with #5, though, since so many Miller kids have grown up and moved away, becoming parents themselves. Rounding everyone up isn’t an option.

Just. Too. Much. Change.

But one thing that has not changed and never will is this:

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PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY: Be a Jerk Today!

Order THE QBQ! WORKBOOK on Personal Accountability and win FREE stuff!

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Yesterday, I was “The Jerk.”

Do you recall the 1979 Steve Martin movie “The Jerk” where he, as Navin Johnson, jumped up and down excitedly exclaiming, “The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!”

He was soooo thrilled! He was in the new phonebook!

A classic movie moment here. (only 41 seconds)

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Accountable Parenting: Strong Is Not Wrong

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Jill and Tim Taylor in Home Improvement

In a 1995 episode of Home Improvement, Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and his buddies discuss “The Look,” defined as the facial expression an unhappy wife employs to send a serious message to her husband.

During the scene, Tim’s sidekick, Al, chimes in with, “Oh, man, I hate ‘the look.’” When someone points out he’s not married, the still-living-at-home-forty-something says, “I get ‘The Look’ from Mother.”

Parents, have you mastered The Look?

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Accountability and Adversity: One CEO’s Story

Personal. Practical. Powerful! Pre-order to win FREE stuff here:

The QBQ! Workbook

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In a note we received from Albert Castillo, CEO of San Antonio Eye Center, there are so many powerful messages, we felt it important to share.

John, the QBQ! book has been very inspiring for my staff. Each wrote a short essay on what the book meant to them, and many brought tears to my eyes. In return, I shared with them my own story. Here it is below:

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OWNERSHIP: A Powerful Principle of Success

What’s New at QBQ!? “The QBQ! Workbook” and Everything Else!

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Since 2012, Karen and I have owned a 1995 home in the Rocky Mountains. Sitting high atop a hill overlooking the “Fraser Valley,” it provides a beautiful western view.

The lower portion of our one-acre lot has an old dirt driveway leading to a dirt road. We’ve never used this driveway since we can’t get up to the house with it. This driveway simply dead-ends into the hill below the home.

Alongside this useless driveway, grass and weeds grow. No biggie, I mean—it is the mountains. So I’ve never mowed there. In fact, there’s so little grass at 8,600 feet, we don’t even keep a mower in Fraser.

Last week, though, I loaded our 22” Toro push mower into my Tacoma and delivered it 88 miles to the house in the hills. I then slid, along with the mower, down the embankment to the old driveway and mowed weeds for over an hour.

Why did I do this?

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QBQ! Customer Service Defined: When They Wait On The Porch For You!

Pre-order our new tool for practicing ACCOUNTABILITY: The QBQ! Workbook

Amazon         Barnes & Noble         IndieBound          Indigo        Books-A-Million

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When I wrote the QBQ! book, little did I know people would view it as something other than a tool to bust blame, vanquish victim thinking, and purge procrastination from their organizations and lives. Some readers see it simply as Cathy sees it—a way to describe outstanding customer service. Enjoy her story!

Cathy’s Story of Outstanding QBQ! Customer Service:

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Personal Accountability: Doing Beats Thinking

I’ve been to a bunch of corporate conferences in my 20 years of keynote speaking on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” Usually, I can be found standing in the back of the ballroom waiting to present.

So I’ve heard lots of executives talk. Mostly, it’s industry and company specific info and technical in nature. READ: Dry and dull.

Or it is “‘rah rah’ you can succeed!!!” stuff. READ: Waste of time.

But once in a while, while admittedly half-listening, an alarm goes off in my brain.

Like yesterday.

I was waiting to deliver my accountability message to 600 Walmart managers in Arkansas when one of the execs quoted the CEO of Walmart U.S.—Greg Foran—who has said:

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