--- title: How Are Your Excuses Serving You? | The Sales Blog description: "In response to the Hustler’s Playbook, Family Guy writes: “A hustler doesn’t have a family that wants him home for dinner.” By providing this comment, Family Guy reveals his excuse: I would hustle, but then I wouldn’t be home for dinner with my family. That excuse provides the psychological air cover that Family Guy needs […]" image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_142644958.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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That excuse provides the psychological air cover that Family Guy needs to feel good about his decision to not hustle, and he believes that he occupies the moral high ground. Let’s try a few more. How about, “My competitors have [lower prices](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/12/02/on-your-competitors-and-pricing/) than my company.” This excuse provides cover for losing opportunities and failing to win profitable business. Knowing this is true, why should you put forth the effort to identify and nurture prospects with business challenges great enough that they are willing to invest more to produce a better result? Why bother working to create enough value to make you worth paying more? Let’s look at these, “[My territory sucks](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/if-it-is-your-sales-territory-make-it-your-territory). My commission structure sucks. My company’s policies suck. My manager sucks. I am being micromanaged. The economy is still too soft.” There are a lot of derivatives of excuses built on the idea that if it weren’t for some external factor you would perform better. This excuse provides a blanket excuse for all sorts of poor performance. Your excuses do a brilliant job serving you in one specific way: they provide you with the psychological air cover you need to absolve yourself of your responsibilities. But that is the limit of the value excuses provide. Your excuse does nothing to help you produce better results. It does nothing to improve your performance. Even your best excuse doesn’t really absolve you of your responsibility to succeed. The human mind is a magnificent thing. It is endowed with the ability to rationalize away uncomfortable truths so that you can lower your expectations and still live with yourself. But that same mind has unlimited [resourcefulness](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/06/11/how-to-exercise-your-greatest-human-attribute-resourcefulness/), imagination, and the ability to create solutions for any obstacle it focuses on for some period of time. How do your excuses serve you?   ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2014](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2014) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on June 23, 2014 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. You can email Anthony at [iannarino@gmail.com](mailto:iannarino@gmail.com) [Follow me on my website](https://www.thesalesblog.com/anthony-iannarino) [Follow me on Facebook ](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iannarino/) [Follow me on Twitter ](http://www.twitter.com/iannarino) [![AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg?width=400&height=400&name=AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/authority) [![ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg?width=318&height=179&name=ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/free-cold-calling-video) ![salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover (1)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg?width=768&height=994&name=salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg) ### Free Sales eBook: Sales Call Planner Planning your sales call improves the likelihood of making a successful call, and it demonstrates to your dream client your professionalism. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2024-07-18T12:43:05 PM", "datePublished" : "2014-06-23 19:48:32", "description" : "In response to the Hustler’s Playbook, Family Guy writes: “A hustler doesn’t have a family that wants him home for dinner.” By providing this comment, Family Guy reveals his excuse: I would hustle, but then I wouldn’t be home for dinner with my family. 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