My personal account on how reading John Izzo’s book, “Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything” changed me during my second semester in college.

1. Personal Account: How John Izzo’s book, “Stepping
Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes
Everything” changed me
My personal accounton how reading John Izzo’s book, “Stepping Up: How
Taking Responsibility Changes Everything” changed me during my second
semester in college.
With this being my second fall semester in college, I have learned a lot about myself: I have done
things that have pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me grow as a person. This being
said, I have also found multiple useful traits that I need to improve upon to better my character.
This Professional Development in Aeronautics class has helped give me a step up in realizing
how to become a better student, employee and even just a better person all around. In this paper, I
will be discussing traits I feel need to be improved upon based on discussions in class and John
Izzo’s book “Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything”.
One topic I found I could use the most help in can be found in Chapter 3. In this chapter, Izzo
talks about why one of the most common reasons people tend to put off responsibility is that they
claim they are only one person, and by being only one person out of the billions there are in the
world, no change will come out of anything they try to accomplish. I feel I associate with this the
most in areas such as recycling and environmental sustainability. I have my days where I recycle
and try my best to better the environment but I constantly question if the lengths I go to are worth

2. it knowing that my roommate and neighbors could care less. I find myself questioning if it is
worth spending my time sorting through my trash just to make a dent in the state the environment
is in now.
I use this way of thinking in work settings too. When I am at work, which is at the front desk of a
hotel, I find it hard sometimes to keep smiling, welcoming face to guests that are checking in
while my coworkers are coming up to me with negative attitudes. Their negativity affects me and
how I perform my job directly. Once I got tired of their pessimistic outlooks, I began to focus on
myself and how I responded back to them. I found that the Five Rows of Responsibility came into
play; when people would come in contact with me with negativity, I would give positive,
reassuring feedback. This would put them in a better mood, so when they talked to others, the
same positive attitude would come out, spreading positivity all throughout the hotel. This kind of
thinking benefited everyone who was working and kept a good, relaxed atmosphere in the lobby
for any of the guests who came in.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt this trait was more of being lazy than anything else. If
I had chosen to listen to all the times my coworkers would complain and join with their
negativity, it could have gravely affected my job and how guests perceived the hotel itself. The
same goes with recycling; I have noticed my roommate start to recycle her milk bottles and papers
too. If I have enough influence to change the attitudes of the people around me, then I know I can
apply this type of thinking to my everyday activities.
A second trait I find is important for me to improve on is the concept of Only Naïve People
Change the World. When I read the title of this chapter, it took me by surprise. I asked myself

3. how it could be possible for naïve people to change the world. Isn’t it usually just smart and
mindful people who have the ability to make a change? Once I read through the chapter though, I
realized what Izzo meant. Being naïve about something does not mean being dumb and oblivious.
Being naïve, in this sense, means that you have the ability to be optimistic even when people try
to get in your way. It lets you have and keep the idea that you do have the power to make a
change no matter what anyone says.
I find that I struggle with this because I do no think of myself as a naïve person. I am the type of
person who carefully analyzes situations that will benefit me in the best and quickest way
possible. Rarely do I ever make a choice without thinking it through all the way. This can be both
a good and bad thing depending on the situation, but the way Izzo explains it, I find that it harms
me. There are situations where it is best that you are a quick and sporadic thinker, but not all
decisions should be based on this way of thinking.
Sporadic thinking can be harmful in situations such as planning. When you have a commitment at
a certain time but make a sporadic decision to visit a friend before that time, you could easily
forget about your commitment and completely miss it. It can also be applied to more critical
situations such as flying. If the weather is progressively getting worse, the pilot in command is in
charge of deciding if the flight is a go or no go. If the pilot feels they are in a rush and makes a
decision off the top of their head, it could mean the life of the rest of the people on board of the
aircraft. Sporadic thinking can also be considered good though in settings such as gambling or
investing. In times of investing, it is hardly ever a good idea to sit down and analyze every detail
for all that information to change within hours or days.

4. Another trait from the book I found I could use more work on was the Do Something… Do
Anything in Chapter 6. I like the quote the author uses at the beginning of this chapter. It states, “If
you’re waiting for the perfect plan, you may be waiting forever”. This chapter is all about how the
most important step you can take to make a change is to get people talking about how you want
something to be different. Izzo talks about how the only thing you need to get started is to just get
in and start doing something. He also says there is no need for the perfect plan or the best time to
do it.
The reason I find this is as one of the traits I need to work on is that I catch myself waiting for the
perfect time to do things on a regular basis. For example, in my first year of college, I was
determined on doing a study abroad program. As time had passed, by the end of my Freshman
year, my grades dropped drastically along with my hope for study abroad. I went through the
summer suffering and pitying myself, spending the time I should have been looking for other
options just sulking around and feeling bad for myself. When Sophomore year came around, I
went to a study abroad information meeting. In the meeting, I found out that grades and GPA
were not the only factors taken into consideration. They were not as important as I thought they
were in order to experience study abroad. Then, ironically, this topic of “do something, do
anything” came up and made me realize that grades do matter, but that should not be the only
thing getting in my way of the thing I’ve been dreaming of for so long.
A reason why Do Something, Do Anything is an important trait to have is that it lets you try
different things. It lets yourself brainstorm about ideas and lets you try things that may or may not
work end up working. This is a good thing because even if your idea did not work the first time,
you at least have a place to start from again instead of having to start from scratch as the first

5. time. This gives you experience and helpful knowledge that you would not have had if it were a
different way.
A third trait I find myself wanting to improve on is leadership. All throughout high school, I
pushed myself to take leadership positions in sports and clubs because I knew it is a skill I lack.
Being naturally shy, l struggle with taking the lead and directing people on what to do. I do feel
that I have a level head during stressful situations though, so I use that to my advantage when
necessary.
Chapter 8 talks about how Leadership is Not a Position. Leadership is a trait that cannot be
designated to just anyone and it certainly is not a title you are granted at a company. Someone can
be the boss of you but not necessarily be considered a leader. If all bosses were leaders, things
would work a lot more efficiently than they do already. This is because to be a leader, you have to
be respected by those who follow you and have the drive to be able to push a group forward when
things do not go specifically as planned.
With my major being Aeronautics with a concentration of Aviation Management, I know I have
to be a good leader to do my job right. As I eventually move up in my career, I know that I will
need the support of my peers to advance and help me get the job done. In order for this to happen
though, I need to grow as a person and learn from my experiences. These are the steps to
becoming a good leader. You need to learn from the people in front of you and from your own
mistakes and get others to follow and support you. Once you have mastered that, in my opinion,
you have become a respectable leader.

6. I once had a band director who would just sit in his chair, let us play the piece of music in front of
us, and when we were done, would just and criticize every mistake we made. He did this every
day, all the way up until the day of the concert. At that point, I remember myself and every other
band member being felling pretty shot down and discouraged. Knowing this, the director gathered
us all in a room behind the stage where we were to perform on and spoke to us. He said that he
understood how we all felt, but that he was forced to treat us with that attitude. With confusing
stares and blank looks going across the group, he made himself clear; he said that he was forced to
criticize us so harshly because we were all such talented musicians, giving us positive feedback
would have done nothing more to improve our skills. With that in mind, we took the stage and
performed the most difficult concert we had done as high schoolers with great precision and
grace.
My band director showed us that he was a great leader. After that concert, every upperclassman
had the utmost respect for him. Underclassman thought he was just old and cranky but throughout
the years they learned the reason why he acted the way he did. You can be a leader in many
different ways. My band director showed the “tough love” way of leading but he found it was the
most effective way to reach out to a group of high school musicians. I aspire to be as great of a
leader as he was one day, and I know I will achieve this with time.
Another trait I would like to improve upon is Stepping Up By Speaking Up. I find myself to be a
very shy person, and at times I can be pretty unsure of myself. This could potentially be
problematic since I find it hard to speak up in a class or work setting. This also attributes to my
lack of leadership skills since I find that I am constantly double-checking myself. This I find leads

7. to a loss of valuable time and even possibly the loss of respect of your followers for not having an
answer on how to approach a certain situation.
Speaking up is a very important trait to have. How can you step up and do the right thing if you
find it hard to speak up? My aunt has a similar story of one you have told in class. She currently
works for the Air Force and is stationed in Texas. Her superior asked her to falsify some
documents that would make him look better than what was really going on. Like you, she decided
to hold true to her character and not fulfill his request. He eventually reported her and she got
transferred to a different state. When her new officer saw his report, he confronted her about it.
She told the truth about what had happened and the officer surprisingly believed her. Confused,
she asked why. He told her he knew her former officer on a personal level and knew that his
character matched what she was describing. Since then, her old supervisor has been fired and she
has been able to move up in ranks thanks to her ability to speak up about what was truly
happening.
Even though I have identified some of my weaknesses, I also feel that I have a good grasp on
some of the traits mentioned in John Izzo’s book. One of the strengths includes the ability to take
responsibility for another person’s job for the benefit of others. This falls under the category
of It’s Not My Job, It’s Not My Fault. Even though this is one of the most common reasons why
people do not step up, I was brought up to help others do their job. My parents raised me to do
things even if it was not my job. It was little things like cleaning up a table at a restaurant after
eating or picking up the paper off the ground in the city or in class. This is very evident in the way
I carry myself and how I conduct my work now.

8. A second trait I find I am good at is 100% Responsibility / No Excuses. The idea behind this is
that you should focus on how you are contributing to the problem instead of focusing on what
someone else is doing. Once you accept that you have contributed to the problem, the other
person will usually always meet you halfway. A prime example of this is marriage. Even though I
am not married, I have been in enough long-term relationships to know that compromise is very
important in order to make things work. Without it, the two people end up only seeing
why their side is the right side and cannot get over that fact. If you and your partner are able to
look at things through each other’s perspective and compromise, your relationship is sure to last.
This is a very important concept when applied to having a job. If you are always blaming others
rather than taking a step back and analyzing yourself, nothing will ever get done. On the other
hand, if you become the bigger person and own up to a mistake you have made, others will tend
to notice your nobility and respect you for it. I found out the hard way that this is the best way to
deal in these types of situations.
When I was a kid, I was known to tell white lies and get caught all the time. From saying I did not
eat the last cookie when I really did, to secretly inviting friends over, I could never get away with
anything. My parents just seemed to always know. Eventually, they seemed to get tired of it and
finally sat me down and had a heart — to — heart about lying. Of course, I hated it, but it did
make me realize that owning up to what you did was always better than dealing with the
consequences.
The traits I have to work on do not make me a bad person for not already having them. Almost no
one is just born at being good at stepping up to responsibility or changing the world single-

9. handedly. There are events in your life that mold you to make decisions and those decisions
eventually make you into the person that you, in turn, grow up to be. Once you wake up and
realize that you really can make a difference in the world, that is when you have taken the first
step to changing the world around you.
Also, considering the traits I find I am good at already makes me that much closer to being that
better person I eventually want to be. Although there is always room for improvement,
considering my age, decisions I have made and where I am currently at in life, I find myself on
the right track to growing up to making a change in the world.
I find that with my concentration of Aviation Management, there will plenty of room for me to
grow as a person along with things to change within the industry. Many steps are already being
taken to provide change within the aeronautics business, but with these changes, there will also
arise problems. That is where my generation of plane enthusiasts will have to come in and step up.
With the knowledge we have been taught by our professors and peers, we will be the ones to
make the aviation community as good as it has ever been.
Reference:
Izzo, John. Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything. San Francisco, Berrett-
Koehler Publishers, 2012. Print.