I am indebted to Charles "Chas" Walker who inspired this conversation.
I'm interested in complete work. In fact, when it comes to work,
I'm only interested in complete work.
I knew a guy who painted fences for a living. He did a pretty good job
painting the fence. But when he was done, he left behind a mess of
empty paint cans, dried paint brushes, and various boxes and paper bags
spattered with paint. I pointed them out to him, and asked him whether
or not he was going to clean up after himself, or whether he expected
someone else to. Taken aback, he told me he was "only doing his
job".
But that's exactly what he wasn't doing.
He didn't qualify to be in the inner circle. That's not just
because he didn't do complete work. Even if he did do complete work,
even if he did clean up after himself, he may still not have qualified
to be in the inner circle anyway. Doing complete work, while a very
desirable qualification, isn't necessarily enough.
I'm interested in being on time. If you and I say we're going to meet
somewhere, then I'm also interested in you being on time.
For some people, it's really difficult to be on time. Their
relationship with time has no integrity.
A girl I once dated was always late - to the point where
it put our friendship in jeopardy. She asked me "How do you always be
on time?" - as if I've got a secret about being on time which she
wanted me to share with her. "It's no secret" I told her. "How you
always be on time is don't ... be ... late.".
But she didn't get it - probably because she tried to make it
mean something.
She didn't qualify to be in the inner circle. That's not just because
she couldn't be counted on to be on time. Even if she could be counted
on to be on time, even if she didn't be late, she may still not
have qualified to be in the inner circle anyway. Being on time ie being
count‑on‑able to be on time, while a very desirable
qualification, isn't necessarily enough.
The qualification for being in the inner circle is your word can be
trusted. Complete work doesn't necessarily qualify you to be in the
inner circle. Being count‑on‑able to be on time
doesn't necessarily qualify you to be in the inner circle. When your
word can be trusted so I can give my word, based on your
word, to others - that's the qualification for being in the inner
circle.
People in the inner circle also do complete work and are on time.