Taking Responsibility | Sam Montag | TEDxTheWestminsterSchools
People should take full credit for their work and finish all their endeavors because they are responsible for their own actions. Sam Montague argues that people often stop projects midway and take credit for others completing the work, using baseball's designated hitter rule as a comparison. He encourages audience members to take responsibility and see projects through to completion.
## Speakers & Context
- **Sam Montague** — Speaker delivering talk on the necessity of finishing what one starts and taking credit for one's own work.
- Audience interaction style: Highly rhetorical, using hypothetical scenarios (pancakes, driving, reports) to make points.
## Theses & Positions
- Individuals should always finish what they start and only take credit for what they personally accomplish.
- It is incorrect for adults to allow children or friends to complete tasks that the adults initiated, as this sets a poor example.
- Taking responsibility means completing obligations, whether it's cleaning one's room or finishing a school assignment.
- One must use all of one's ability to see tasks through to completion, avoiding procrastination or stopping work to start something else.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Credit Transfer:** The act of starting a task (e.g., report, meal) and having another person finish it while taking sole credit for the entire result.
- **Personal Responsibility Cycle:** The need for individuals to eventually take care of themselves, as parental support is temporary.
- **Baseball Analogy:** Comparing the Designated Hitter (DH) in MLB, who is allowed to hit without being the pitcher, to argue that specialized roles (like pitching vs. hitting) should not unfairly limit who contributes to the success of the team.
## Named Entities
- **Jimmy McDougal** — Friend mentioned in the speech, associated with taking Spanish class.
## Numbers & Data
- Four years: Duration since Montague received a dog.
- Timeframe: About two months (since promising to feed the dog).
## Examples & Cases
- **Pancake Meal:** Making pancakes, telling others how good they are, and taking all credit for the entire meal.
- **Driving:** Starting the drive to work, stopping, having a passenger finish the rest, and taking credit for the driving.
- **Report Writing:** Starting a report, having someone else finish it, and taking all credit for the final A+ or client signature.
- **Child Development:** The necessity for children to eventually take care of themselves as parents' care is finite.
- **Restaurant Scenario:** Going to a restaurant where one doesn't order, implying dependence on others' actions.
- **American League Pitchers:** The specific rule allowing a pitcher to not hit, compared to other positions that do not have this restriction.
- **Dog Care:** A promise made four years prior to feed a dog, contrasting with the reality of not feeding the dog for two months.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Alarm clock:** Used as an opening trigger device to set the scene.
## References Cited
- **American League:** Specific baseball league reference used for rule examples.
- **National League:** Specific baseball league reference used for rule comparisons.
- **Major League Baseball (MLB):** The overarching sport reference.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Taking Credit vs. Sharing Credit:** The inherent unfairness of claiming full credit when others contributed the completion work.
- **Parental Dependence vs. Self-Sufficiency:** The transition from receiving care to providing it oneself.
- **Pitcher Role Restriction vs. Full Contribution:** The debate over why only the pitcher in the American League is exempted from hitting requirements.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- Acknowledgment that the analogies (pancakes, reports) are exaggerations used for rhetorical effect.
- A humorous self-correction regarding the Spanish class promise: "of course I'm kidding but in some scenarios like that people wouldn't be kidding."
## Methodology
- **Anecdotal/Rhetorical Illustration:** Using common daily activities and fabricated scenarios to illustrate a universal ethical failure.
- **Direct Address/Command:** Structuring the speech as a series of direct appeals ("No people just don't do that," "you should never stop...").
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- Individuals must take full responsibility for their actions and ensure they complete every task they start.
- A plea to the audience to finish what they start, whether it is cleaning a room or completing a major work assignment.
## Implications & Consequences
- Failure to take personal responsibility leads to a dependency on others and an inaccurate understanding of one's own contributions.
- If one does not learn to finish tasks independently, one risks remaining in a state of perpetual incompletion, even if tasks are outsourced.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"beep-beep-beep your alarm clock rings to wake you up"*
- *"you take all the credit for making the entire meal"*
- *"I'll be talking to you about how you should always finish what you started and you should only take credit for what you do"*
- *"we have almost all started something and not finished it"*
- *"No what about going to a restaurant would you go to that restaurant but not but just sit there as everyone else orders because you used to go to the restaurant but you wouldn't be the one ordering"*
- *"I just want you to work for it now"*
- *"I wrote four different speeches before I wrote this one but I didn't just write the beginning of each speech I wrote the entire speech"*
- *"please please the next time you start something finish it"*