{"id":469,"date":"2011-01-20T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T15:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?p=469"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:39:07","slug":"scapegoats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/","title":{"rendered":"Scapegoats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am constantly meeting people who are looking to blame their situation on someone else. \u00a0Regardless of how they got into a situation, it was someone else&#8217;s fault or it would not be this way. \u00a0The government, a spouse, the children, mom or dad, the &#8220;big guy&#8221; you work for &#8211; what is your scapegoat?<\/p>\n<p>In my role as a coach, I find those who are successful find that the only one they can blame is themselves. \u00a0Yes, all of the people above, and even more, may have had a hand in your situation, but successful people have decided to find how they can improve themselves. \u00a0They have stopped looking for a scapegoat.<\/p>\n<p>I remember the man who sat in my office and blamed God because of his impending financial collapse. \u00a0After he pounded his fist on my desk, \u00a0I reminded him that God did not use any credit cards &#8211; not a single one. \u00a0Seeing the stupidity in his statement he began to backtrack.<\/p>\n<p>The world is full of people trying to find a scapegoat. \u00a0You do not have to be one of them. \u00a0What do you need to fix in your life and who is stopping your from fixing it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am constantly meeting people who are looking to blame their situation on someone else. \u00a0Regardless of how they got into a situation, it was someone else&#8217;s fault or it would not be this way. \u00a0The government, a spouse, the children, mom or dad, the &#8220;big guy&#8221; you work for &#8211; what is your scapegoat? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coaching","category-encouragement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Scapegoats - Financial Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scapegoats - Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am constantly meeting people who are looking to blame their situation on someone else. \u00a0Regardless of how they got into a situation, it was someone else&#8217;s fault or it would not be this way. \u00a0The government, a spouse, the children, mom or dad, the &#8220;big guy&#8221; you work for &#8211; what is your scapegoat? [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/financialfocus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-20T15:28:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/scapegoats\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/scapegoats\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\"},\"headline\":\"Scapegoats\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-20T15:28:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/scapegoats\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":204,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Coaching\",\"Encouragement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/scapegoats\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/scapegoats\\\/\",\"name\":\"Scapegoats - Financial Focus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-20T15:28:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/scapegoats\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"description\":\"Personal Financial Coaching\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"width\":\"400\",\"height\":\"72\",\"caption\":\"Financial Focus\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/financialfocus\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\",\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Parkey Thompson\"},\"description\":\"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \\\/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/parkey-thompson\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Scapegoats - Financial Focus","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Scapegoats - Financial Focus","og_description":"I am constantly meeting people who are looking to blame their situation on someone else. \u00a0Regardless of how they got into a situation, it was someone else&#8217;s fault or it would not be this way. \u00a0The government, a spouse, the children, mom or dad, the &#8220;big guy&#8221; you work for &#8211; what is your scapegoat? [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/","og_site_name":"Financial Focus","article_publisher":"http:\/\/financialfocus","article_published_time":"2011-01-20T15:28:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00","author":"Parkey Thompson","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Parkey Thompson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/"},"author":{"name":"Parkey Thompson","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4"},"headline":"Scapegoats","datePublished":"2011-01-20T15:28:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/"},"wordCount":204,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Coaching","Encouragement"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/","name":"Scapegoats - Financial Focus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-20T15:28:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/scapegoats\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","name":"Financial Focus","description":"Personal Financial Coaching","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization","name":"Financial Focus","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","width":"400","height":"72","caption":"Financial Focus"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/financialfocus","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4","name":"Parkey Thompson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Parkey Thompson"},"description":"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/author\/parkey-thompson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}