Personal Responsibility

In the building practices of ancient Rome, when scaffolding was removed from a completed Roman arch, the Roman engineer stood beneath. If the arch came crashing down, he was the first to know. Thus his concern for the quality of the arch was intensely personal, and it is not surprising that so many Roman arches have survived.

- taken from Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman (1991), who quoted Economist Paul Rosenstein-Rodan.

One of the reasons why I've always insisted on being personally responsible for my own endeavours.