Taking Accountability

Donovan Vogel
3 min readFeb 15, 2023
Image courtesy of Chris Henry on Unsplash

In honor of the Super Bowl a few nights ago, today I wanted to bring some light to the business and sports worlds brought to you by one of the biggest results of the Super Bowl: Accountability.

Or I should reiterate, the Eagles’ reaction to the result of the Super Bowl.

I wasn’t betting on the Chiefs to win nor did I enjoy the way the game ended at all. To be honest, it’s taken me days to process the loss (as a fan) so I can only imagine how the players, owners and coaching staff felt (minus the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator who just yesterday accepted new head coaching jobs with the Colts and Cardinals).

The Chiefs got a major break late in the 4th quarter on what most people (including myself) consider to be a horrible penalty called by the refs. James Bradberry was called for a defensive holding penalty on JuJu.

This set KC up for a game-winning field goal and just like that, after one of the best Super Bowls in my young life, the Eagles’ season came to a frustrating end.

But they’ll be contenders again next year and the year after, and here’s why I think so:

It would have been so easy for the Eagles to blame the loss on the refs or the terrible field conditions in Arizona. The field was a joke and too slippery.

Instead, Nick Sirianni said after the game that the refs have a hard job to do, there were so many other plays that led to the result of the game, and KC was the better team that night.

James Bradberry, who was penalized late in the game, also took accountability for putting himself in a position where the refs could make that call in the first place. He 100% owned up to it.

How does this relate to the world of business?

By nature, it’s easy to feel that we have less control over results than other departments or people. do

Most of us are measured on metrics that involve performance.

Ask yourself, have you done everything you can to support your company in achieving their monthly, quarterly and annual goals? We’re already halfway through February. It’ll be the end of Q1 before we know it! Whether you’re an employee, self-employed, freelancer, or business owner, are you on target?

Long story short, are you doing everything you can to hold yourself accountable for the outcomes of your KPIs?

Especially when reflecting at the end of the month/quarter/year, are you blaming external factors or asking yourself what you could have done differently to hit those goals and targets?

Now back to football for as to why this is so important…

Instead of spending the off-season sulking in misery for losing the Super Bowl because of a bad call, the Eagles will spend it figuring out how they could have won regardless of that terrible call.

They’ll spend the off-season giving their star-studded QB Jalen Hurts a much needed (and lucrative) contract extension after the tail-end of his rookie deal.

They’ll spend the off-season re-signing key players and signing new free agents.

They’ll spend the off-season recruiting new talent and players in the NFL draft.

They’ll spend the off-season signing a new offensive and defensive coordinator.

They’ll spend the off-season promoting internal talent and coaches and signing other coaches outside of the organization.

They’ll continue to improve and get better. Constant and never ending improvement as some would say.

They’ll continue to watch film and study their opponents.

Those are many of the reasons why they’ll be back in my humble opinion.

Accountability is underrated.

Ask yourself, who is holing you accountable?

My Very Best,

Donovan Vogel

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Donovan Vogel

Philadelphia based teaching financial literacy | Prospering all other hours | Writer | Lifter | Reader | Traveler | Freedom & Wellness