diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile

index 99bbb6bd5b..3941098473 100644

--- a/Makefile

+++ b/Makefile

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ else

 ASCII2MAN = @echo "ERROR: rst2man from docutils command is not installed but is required to build $(MANPAGES)" && exit 1

 endif

-PYTHON=python

+PYTHON?=python

 GENERATE_CLI = hacking/build-ansible.py generate-man

 SITELIB = $(shell $(PYTHON) -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()")