Are You Going From Good to Great?
Most people are good in what they do, but few seldom achieve greatness. Most are content with just being good, however, they feel that greatness is something that is achieved with a lot more hard work, time and energy. However, let me share with you something that might just shock you!
1. Greatness requires just a little more from you
In the Olympics, any 100 meter race is over by just a couple of seconds. The difference between the first and the second place is just a matter of split seconds! However, the prize money between the first and second (or even third) usually differs by a few times! Just a little bit more in the final push towards the end line, and the person is the first place. Since we are already putting in so much effort to be good, why not take a little more to make it great? It is no harder to build a good company than to be build something great and lasting.
An interesting note: No one remembers 2nd place in a race, but everyone remembers only the first!
2. Greatness sometimes requires less suffering and work
In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins comments that some of the great companies face less suffering and perhaps less work. This is because Great companies are able to realise that much of what they are doing is a waste of energy and have the ability to focus on objectives that will only drive the company towards a singular goal. Most other companies tend to focus on a lot of areas and diversifying their time and efforts, thus resulting in a lot of extra work with not much result.
Collins adds, “I am not saying that going from good to great is easy… but I am asserting that those who strive to turn good into great find the process no more painful or exhausting than those who settle for just letting things wallow along in mind-numbing mediocrity. Yes, turning good into great requires energy, but building the momentum adds more energy back in to the pool than it takes out.”
3. Greatness is about asking the right question
If we ever ask questions like “Why should I need to be great? Isn’t success enough?” My question to you would be whether you are in the right kind of work. If you are engaged in something that you really love and are passionate about, that question becomes irrelevant. This is because when we are in the flow of doing what we really enjoy and like, we will want to make it greater and better. We will be asking better questions like, “How can I add more value to my clients/organisation in what I am doing?”
Conclusion
Make a conscious decision to be Great in what we do. Since we are already striving to be good, let’s strive to be Great!
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Tagged with: good to great • greatness • passion • question
Filed under: Mindset and Inspiration
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Hi Kenneth
Greetings! Letty R. Vendramini from Brisbane, Australia! We tarined at John Childers’ Million Dollar Speaker Training in Thailand! Hope you are doing very well! Your new Blog looks great! I like it! Keep up the good work! All the BEST and talk to you soon again. Regards to all!
Warm regards
Letty R. Vendramini
BestSecretsToHappiness.com/
Totally agree that you’ll be “in the flow” state when you are doing things that you are truly like and enjoy. I guess most people in this state will constantly want to do their best & be the best that they can be. Question now is how many people are actually in the state of flow? My guess is that many people don’t even have the desire to find out how they can be in the flow state as they just choose the easy way out & are okay with being mediocre. It definitely requires a lot from someone who is not internally motivated to want to be good and do good. But once that person is motivated to be good, then it is easy to move on from being good to being great!
Yes Kenneth…totally agree with you…There’s a saying “Good doesn’t mean they are great, but..great things, will definitely taste good”..
Cheers
Hi Cindy,
I hold strongly to the view that if you are really passionate about what you do, you will go the extra mile to what to improve processes. We should not constantly motivate because if we get the right people into the job, they will motivate themselves. We just need to nurture and encourage them in their passion!
To Jailani,
Great Quote! Do continue to share with the rest!
So, dare to be great, stay focused, and expand on what you’re good at…
Speaking of flow, it is precisely what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s FLOW is all about.. being caught up doing what we love with passion…and then creativity (greatness) comes!
My problem nowadays is to recruit postive people with the right attitude. Sometimes, it is too hard to select one that we tend to bend on the relevant skills. What say you?
@ InvestInEast: The age old question remains, do you wish to get people with a great attitude or great skillset? Skills can be taught, but attitude can be rather difficult to change.
In good to great, Great companies often wait for the right one to come along and will not just hire anyone who wants to work (even if they need people to fill the position). It takes a lot clarity and sheer will to be able to do it, since you know that having right people is extremely important before you can go to the next level.