Colorado & Denver News

by Tom Mustin
DENVER (CBS4) ― A Denver man has turned his motivational message into a bestselling novel. Author John Miller has hit paydirt with his book, "QBQ! The Question Behind the Question."

After selling sales training to sales executives in Minneapolis for more than a decade, Miller decided to go out on his own as a motivational speaker and founder of QBQ Inc. His speaking career has flourished, and his message has translated into huge success as an author. His goal is to bring back personal accountability in an age of excuses, procrastination, and blame.

"What can I do to contribute to society instead of complaining and whining and pointing fingers?" Miller asked.

"QBQ! has sold 800,000 copies worldwide. The book offers simple solutions to taking ownership in your life, at home and in the office.

"It's all about not asking external questions like, 'Why are we going to have to go through the change? When is that department going to do their job right? Why don't I get a break? Who made the mistake?' Those kinds of questions take us down the path of victim thinking, procrastination and blame," Miller said.

Miller said a better question, or the "question behind the question," is, "What can 'I' do, given the circumstances, to make the situation better?"

"Achievers and leaders really ask those better questions," Miller said. "What we call the internal questions that raise that person up to a level of ownership and accountability."

Miller gives nearly 100 presentations a year across America everywhere from huge corporations to churches to non-profits. After a presentation to the defense department, Miller donated several books to soldiers serving in Iraq. He recently received an email from an Army captain saying QBQ! had changed their lives.

"It's just a better way, because when something goes wrong, he's got soldiers saying, 'What can I do to fix it? Instead of why can't the other guy do his job correctly?' It's just a higher level of accountability to the military and that's a good thing."

During his presentation, Miller says it sometimes takes the audience a while to realize that his message is directed at them, and not someone else.

"They've been thinking about their husband, their son, their boss and their colleagues. We always think accountability is for someone else," Miller said. "You ask what the tight summary of the book is, and that is personal accountability is not for somebody else, it's for me."

Miller practices what he preaches. He and his wife, Karen, have seven children and that's after recently adopting three daughters.

Miller's eldest daughter is now teaching the QBQ! principal to high school students. Even those teenagers are getting the message.

"Kids are starting to rethink their normal pattern of saying, 'My grades are down because my teachers are no good, my mom didn't help me with my homework, or my friends are mean to me.'"

Meanwhile, Miller is on a one man crusade. He's driving home the message that, when it comes to taking charge of our own lives, the buck stops here.

"When I practice personal accountability, the bottom line is, life is just more fun," Miller said. "It's a better way of living than to be living in that lower level of quagmires called 'victim thinking, procrastination and blame.'"

Miller has just released a new book called "Flipping the Switch." It takes the idea of QBQ and personal accountability to the next level.

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