This maxim is a good one to keep in mind when you find yourself thinking, "Do I stop now because it's probably good enough, or do I keep going because it can be better?" The harder path is to keep going. Few people want to do that. But exceptional people do it all the time. They have an innate need to be the very best or to create something above and beyond what is being asked of them. They deliberately choose the harder path.
The harder path is working through the weekend to re-write a presentation because you knew it could be better. It's making tough decisions when they're needed, and not inventing delays to avoid responsibility. It's sharing credit and recognition when it would be easy not to.
Over the years we have come to think that this is one of the truly distinguishing characteristics that makes someone successful. It's a rare and valuable person that willingly goes the extra mile not because its required, and not for immediate gain but simply because they feel compelled to do so. It's the difference between "good enough" and "great" as bestselling author Jim Collins explained when he wrote,
"Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good - and that is their main problem."
Many people want to do what is required of them, but they tend to stop at that. If you aspire to be great, choose the harder path.
"It's never crowded along the extra mile."
- Wayne Dyer
"Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops."
- Thomas J. Watson
"If you have two choices, choose the harder. If you're trying to decide whether to go out running or sit home and watch TV, go running. Probably the reason this trick works so well is that when you have two choices and one is harder, the only reason you're even considering the other is laziness. You know in the back of your mind what's the right thing to do, and this trick merely forces you to acknowledge it."
- Paul Graham
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This quote of Thomas J. Watson Sr. was from the Great Depression - July 22nd 1930 in Stuttgart Germany. To provide context here is what he said before this statement,
ReplyDelete"We have reached the point where we must look more than five, ten or twenty years ahead. We must not think of this business in terms of years. We must think of the IBM as an institution that is going beyond our lifetime and even that of our grandchildren. There is no question about that, because we are in a business that renders a great service to mankind, and that kind of business never dies....Never think of this business as being a successful one. It is not. It is merely succeeding, going a little farther each year in its endeavor to succeed. Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops. So let us keep in mind the idea that although we are succeeding, we have not yet reached our goal."
Watson Sr. hired men and women in the midst of the greatest depression the world has known, believing that after that would come one of the greatest "Ages of Man" the world would ever see. Because of this he was ready to grow when others were just recovering.
I would also recommend reading his full article on "Character and Responsibility." As applicable then as today.
"None of us can hope ever to get anywhere, to be of any real use to ourselves, to our community or to our country, unless we have the character, the moral courage and the spiritual strength to accept responsibility. Strength of character is the one basic trait which will be found in all people who achieve greatness. When I say character I do not mean reputation. Character is what you really are and what you know you are. Reputation, on the other hand, is what people think you are, which does not necessarily bear any resemblance to what you really are."
How true in any day and time.
Peter E. Greulich
Author, Speaker and Publisher
The World's Greatest Salesman, An IBM Caretaker's Perspective: Looking Back.