17 Dec 2025 · 3 min
Brian Johnson breaks down BCD: Blame, Complain, Defend. These below-the-line behaviors kill accountability and performance. Urban Meyer's book Above the Line teaches extreme ownership as the antidote, though even Meyer himself sometimes slips.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last one, we chatted about my recent chat with an incredible coach and his chat with another incredible football coach. Today I want to continue exploring some wisdom from Urban Meyer's great book above the Line. I want to talk about something Coach Meyer calls B, C, D. He tells us it isn't hard to find people who are caught in below the line behavior. All you need to do is look for those whose first reaction is to blame others, complain about circumstances and defend yourself or bcd. At Ohio State, BCD is the worst thing you can do outside of lying or disrespecting a woman. It is much worse than fumbling or throwing an interception. When there's a lot of BCD going on, it means people are not owning their mistakes, not being accountable. He tells us my advice to leaders ruthlessly eliminate B, C, D. Instead of accountability, BCD creates a culture of excuse making and victimization, things that are toxic for your organization and performance. It has never solved a problem, achieved a goal, or improved a relationship. Stop wasting your time and energy on something that will never help you. End quote. B, C, D. That might just be my favorite new acronym. Do you ever blame or complain or defend? Me too? Of course we do. We're human. Do you want to move from victim to creator to hero and do what you're here to do? Me too. Of course we do. We're striving to be heroic. Well, if you're serious about your commitment to showing up as the best, most heroic version of yourself so we can help create a world in which 51% of humanity is is flourishing by 2051, then we need to notice all the times we fall into BCD and instead live above the line as we take extreme ownership. No more blaming. No more complaining. No more defending. Period. When shall we practice our philosophy and eliminate the bcd? As always, today's the day. Hero all in. Let's go. Little P.S. here. After reading the book and creating the philosopher's note on which this plus one is based, I learned that Coach Meyer had gone through some personal challenges in which he failed to practice his philosophy of living above the line. To which I say, perfect. There are no perfect human beings. You and I and Coach Meyer won't be the first to fall short of our standards. Here's to doing our best as we all humbly yet heroically strive to learn from our inevitable shortcomings.
