[MrAlmostWrong]

I think he could've done a little bit better job of tying the Parcells story with his actual point unless I was reading it wrong. For a while I really thought he meant people don't care when things go wrong and I kept saying "the hell they don't, that's when they care the most!"

But then it turns and he's saying nobody cares about the story of why things are going wrong. That makes more sense.

[enraged_camel]

Yeah, exactly. It's like what Steve Jobs used to tell newly minted VPs: once you reach a certain rank in the company, reasons don't matter anymore, and only results do.

http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-the-difference-...

[qznc]

What also matters are expectations. If you have mediocre results, but everybody expected much worse, then you still are a hero (example: Paralympics). This is relevant when dealing with clients. Keep expectations down and then over-deliver. Much better than promise a dream and then (only) deliver something great.

Sometimes expectations are everything that matters. For example, elections. Turns out, you can get a Nobel Peace Prize, before you really do anything as president.