There is a difference between success and excellence.
Success is often measured by comparison to others. Excellence,
on the other hand, is all about being the best we can be and maximizing
our gifts, talents and abilities to perform at our highest potential.
We
live in a world that loves to focus on success and loves to compare. We
are all guilty of doing this. However, I believe that to be our best we
must focus more on excellence and less on success. We must focus on
being the best we can be and realize that our greatest competition is
not someone else but ourselves.
For
example, coaching legend John Wooden often wouldn’t tell his players
who they were playing each game. He felt that knowing the competition
was irrelevant. He believed that if his team played to the best of their
ability they would be happy with the outcome. In fact, John Wooden
never focused on winning. He had his team focus on teamwork, mastering
the fundamentals, daily improvement and the process that excellence
requires. As a result he and his teams won A LOT.
A
focus on excellence was also the key for golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.
His secret was to play the course not the competition. He simply focused
on playing the best he could play against the course he was playing.
While others were competing against Jack, he was competing against the
course and himself.
The same can be
said for Apple’s approach with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. When they
created these products they didn’t focus on the competition. Instead
they focused on creating the best product they could create. As a
result, rather than measuring themselves against others they have become
the measuring stick.
We have a
choice as individuals, organizations and teams. We can focus on success
and spend our life looking around to see how our competition is doing,
or we can look straight ahead towards the vision of greatness we have
for ourselves and our teams. We can look at competition as the standard
or as an indicator of our progress towards our own standards. We can
chase success or we can embark on a quest for excellence and focus 100%
of our energy to become our best... and let success find us.
Ironically, when our goal is excellence the outcome and byproduct is often success.
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