I wanted to talk this week about ACCOUNTABILITY.

It’s one of the reasons I created the First Round Last Call Challenge Coin……and The Code of Conduct to help regulate my alcohol intake as it was definitely a change that needed to happen in my life.  You’ve heard me talk about How it works with one side of the coin  First Round, have 1 drink then other side of the coin  Last Call have  a 2nd drink… and once Last Call is done I STOP DRINKING ALCOHOL FOR THE REST OF THE DAY.  That’s the CHALLENGE part of this coin…. to actually STOP at 2 drinks.

This Coin has made me more ACCOUNTABLE not only with my own drinking but in other aspects of my life as well. Accountability is something I think we as a nation have drifted away from. 

Our kids have grown up on video games and when things don’t go right they can just hit a reset button. And It’s become easier to blame and sue somebody than it is to own a problem we may have created. And just look at the political theater we are living in right now with the Presidential election coming up this year. Regardless of what side you’re on --democratic or republican-- I think we can all agree there is just too much fighting and scheming and posturing…. And nothing gets done. Important issues from immigration at the border, to aiding our allies who are at war—everything is in a bottleneck and NO ONE IS ACCOUNTABLE.

And for my own business this time of year and the concept of ACCOUNTABILITY go hand in hand.  As you know my wife and I own and operate 16 AirBnb properties here on Folly Beach.   And in the winter we have monthly guests stay for December, January and February, and it’s also when we do maintenance and any upgrades / remodels on our properties.  Then beginning in March we start our nightly rentals. So right now, is really our reset button and our NEW YEARS…

This winter we took on our largest remodel yet and it involved 4 bedroom and 3 bathrooms in one of our houses we took the structure down to the studs and dirt crawlspace and rebuilt with brand new everything.  We essentially act as general contractor so we are hiring labor, and trades like plumbers, electrician, drywall, tile installers—all of it.  Some of these trades like our plumber and electrician have done 5 or 6 remodels with us and are on speed dial for emergency maintenance in our busy summer months – so we have a good relationship.

But this year for whatever reason we had a harder time than usual getting the trades to show up on time, get the work done, and fix any problems. It seemed like across the board everybody was less ACCOUNTABLE.   For example we had lots of custom tile work done, and the biggest failure point when doing new floor structure and tile is where the toilet sits and connects to the drain pipe. The plumber has to put the flange at the right height and the tile vendor has to cut around it… and despite many meetings we had with both it ended up being a mess and very stressful to redo some work to make it right. Both the plumber and the tile installer were pointing fingers at each other.   Same thing with our carpenter who miss-drilled some holes in our cabinet door fronts and we had to re order them. And it was like pulling teeth to get him to commit a time to come and fix his mistake. 

Each vendor knew and committed to the scope of work and the tight deadline of March 1st for completion because we had paying customers arriving.. But this year it was a constant thread of texts… “When are you coming? “They reply  “tomorrow” … and then it’s a no show.   And so we start again… “What day and time are you coming?” And they finally reply “tomorrow  afternoon”.    Next day comes and its 3pm –deep into the afternoon, and we say “what time are you arriving?” and they say “on my way” and we ask “on your way from where?”  They could be on James Island which is the next town over and 15 minutes away, or north of Summerville and with traffic its 2 hours. All this as we are getting ready to go to Lowes for the 4th time of the day for materials and feeling held hostage to the job.

And so the job finally got done and everything looks beautiful and we start checking guests in last week and our season has begun. So we are off and running, right?…. And then some of our guests rear their ugly heads by not being ACCOUNTABLE.

Once or twice a year we run into this, and just so happens it was one of the first bookings of the year. A lady from Ohio booked one of our places in January  stating “just looking at some beach time away with my teenage daughter”…. but the people who actually arrived were 2 carloads of 18 year-old Spring Breakers… and Mom was nowhere to be found. When we asked the daughter about “Trip away with Mom,”  she said “oh no this was my senior year present –my Mom booked a beach vacation with my friends --my mom is not coming.”   Well,  Several calls later to Mom went unreturned and since we have a strict policy of “the person who books and signs the rental agreement has to be 21 years old, and that’s the ONLY person we give keys to”….. We had to shoe these kids away and not refund the Mom. It’s now been 6 days since then and she has never called us back or asked for a refund. I think she is embarrassed. What kind of lesson does this send to her daughter? Where is the accountability?

Another thing that hit me in the last few months on this topic…. I’m a huge college football fan and watched the playoff and national championships where Michigan beat Alabama and then went on to beat Washington. And world was shocked when Alabama coach Nick Saban retired.. . This is the greatest coach in college football history with 7 national championships… Did you hear any of his comments about what contributed to his decision? 

He didn’t like how his players behaved in the overtime loss to Michigan . slamming helmets and cussing out. “That’s not who we are…he said,  “You win with class and you lose with class.”   And then he said,  “It used to be when a new recruit arrived on campus they were honored to be here and ready to work hard..NOW the first 2 things most ask are “how much playing time am I going to get? And how much money can I make with my Name Image Likeness- the new rule in college football that allows players to be paid for their recognition.

It just seems we are seeing less and less ACCOUNTABILITY in society today.

Part of my mission in creating THE FIRST ROUND LAST CALL CHALLENGE COIN is to help others become accountable-  the same way I became more accountable. It’s a powerful thing to commit to drinking only TWO DRINKS, and then holding yourself to it.   And so I like to think I’m changing the world, one coin at a time.  Sounds bold, but the fact that thousands of people are clicking and reading my website site, reading these blogs, and actually ordering the First Round Last Call Challenge Coin™ tells me this mission isn’t so far-fetched.

Imagine what the United States of America could be like if 100 or 1,000 or 1,000,000 of your neighbors became more ACCOUNTABLE… that’s why I keep doing this.