Anecdote time!

"There are two types of people, those who give excuses, and those who solve problems."

About a year or so ago I was working at my dad's small law office when he inadvertently dropped this gem on me.

My dad is what I like to call a "financial lawyer", as he focuses mostly in bankruptcy, IRS problems, tax stuff, real estate business, litigation, and other random personal or business fiscal matters (for example, he recently took on a case to sell a whole business). He's been running his business now for a little more than 20 years, and for a while after college he worked at the IRS and a few other office jobs, so he more than knows his way around the bureaucracy of working with the government and other large institutions, but it was the way he so deftly displayed this that made it so impressive to me at the time.

So some person wanted to buy or sell a house using him as their representation, and as part of doing this you need to get a form called something along the lines of an "Anti-Predatory Lending Agreement" that you get by mailing or faxing some form to some office where it is somehow approved, and once you have that you can move on with the process of closing. We faxed in our part of getting this done 3-4 weeks in advance even though it is only supposed to take 3-5 business days to get it back approved (assuming everything is in order). About 2 weeks later we still hadn't gotten this form back, so we called in to get the status of the document, and they had us fax it again labeled urgent this time. Another week passed and we still hadn't gotten the document back, so we checked in a second time, sent one more, and another few business days passed without receiving anything. At this point the deadline requiring the document was looming in just a few days, so I called again checking on its status, and basically got nothing.

I reported back to my father to tell him the bad news, then took as seat at the other desk in his room to work on some letters. He sat for a few minutes brewing and quietly mulling over the situation before calling up the office to try and take care of the situation, and after a few minutes got in touch with the person who was supposed to be handling our file. This is how the conversation panned out (with liberties taken assuming what specifically was said on the other side of the phone):

[introductory banter]

Dad Lawyer: So ok, how is this predatory lending agreement coming along?
Office Guy: Well we've had a busy week but we should be able to have it to you in a few days.
DL: A few more days? We need this agreement like _tomorrow_ or we will have to postpone the closing.
OG: Well Sir, it takes around 3 to 5 business days for us to process the forms before we can get them back to you...
DL: 3 to 5 days? We sent it the First time more than 2 weeks ago.
OG: Hmmm... sometimes forms get misplaced or lost altogether,...
DL: Yes, and then we sent our Second form early last week, and our Third form early this week. This is getting ridiculous!
OG: ... I'm not sure what I can do to help you Sir...

// At this point, something clicked to my dad and somehow through his experiences in the past he got it. Without raising his voice, his tone changed from exasperation to what I can only fully describe as his "alpha male" voice: a calm, controlled forcefulness.

DL: I see... Listen, I know you don't do too much around your office, but right now that isn't really working out for me very well. I know theres a guy at your office who actually Does work, because theres a guy at every office who actually Does work. What I need you to do is connect me to that guy, because otherwise this just isn't going to get done.

!!!
I had barely been listening up to that point, but when his tone changed and I heard that, I basically did a full about-face out of surprise. Pretty sure the guy on the other line was just as shocked as I was and tried to muster a response, but my dad didn't have any of it and just asked to talk to "that guy". I expected he would be put through to a manager or supervisor who would then take care of the situation, but as it turns out he actually just got put through to "that guy", and no more than 3 or so hours later one of his secretaries walked into his office and handed him the lending agreement. He turned around to me grinning like a madman and I couldn't help but laugh, the situation seemed too unreal, but I learned that day (though I may not be able to pull it off quite like he did) that it just isn't worth bothering working with the excusers. If you need to rely on people to get stuff done for you, make sure you have people who actually get stuff done.