Are you the kind of person who says, "It's not my fault," or do you take responsibility when things go wrong? Our culture teaches us to duck and dodge when you fail in an area you were in charge of. A whole industry of lawyers has formed to help facilitate this process of blame-shifting. By getting a percentage of the money they win in court, these people make a great living for themselves.

Did you spill coffee on yourself and get burned? Probably the restaurant made the coffee too hot. Did the doctor fail to heal you? What better time to enter the medical lottery than by suing him? His insurance company will probably settle out of court.

Did you fail at a work assignment? Probably there were mitigating circumstances that made it difficult for you to succeed in the first place. And subtly, you've become a victim, beholden to factors beyond your influence, subject to the vagaries of a world spinning out of control.

As a boss, I find people like this everywhere. Armed with excuses, they shed responsibility like sweat wiped away from an Under Armor t-shirt. And since I can't hold them accountable for the consequences of their actions, I do everything possible to avoid hiring them in the first place.

 Because they make terrible, unproductive employees, you want to help them or get rid of them. Bob Newhart has evolved a sophisticated therapy to help people stuck in the victim trap. Try using his method and see if it doesn't make a difference in your life.