I had a boss, some 30 years ago, who gave me a piece of advice that has been valuable to me throughout my career. He told me "never follow a legend, and if possible always follow a loser." I was in radio news at the time and he had just hired me. This was when even smallish cities under population 50,000 had two radio stations providing local news.

In almost all of these towns there was "the legend" the guy(usually a guy back then) who had been there most of his career. The other station's newsroom tended to be a revolving door of fresh out of college kids trying to compete with "the legend." I was the latest in a long line of such kids(23) trying to take on the legend.

My predecessor was an umitigated disaster. The station had no contacts with the community as the result of this person making no effort to gather news. I gave into the temptation to blame her for my performance; the deck was stacked against me because of the situation the last person had left me. How do I compete with "the legend".

What he told me was strikingly similar to what this piece espouses. "We hired you because we thought you could fix the mess she left, and it's your responsibility to fix it." Because he was a tremendously nice guy he didn't continue, but if he had, he probably would have told me that if I couldn't fix it, they would find someone who could.

The challenges of this nation are now President Obama's responsibility. I believe he has exacerbated some of the problems with his policies. Regardless, they are his responsibility. To be annoyed with people expecting results from you is to not understand that. And if he's saying he's not up to the responsibility, his employers will find somebody who will.

As for that piece of advice he gave me, it has served me well. When you follow an underperformer you have an opportunity to fix what they broke. It's how you build your professional reputation. President Obama wants us to believe he followed an incompetent. If it's true this is his opportunity to shine, not feel that he's burdened with something that "isn't his fault." The choice he has made is obvious.