In Jim
Collins book “Good to Great” he states that “good is the greatest enemy of
great”. Now Jim is talking about
companies but much pertains to us as individuals as well.
At first
this didn’t make much sense to me since I have always considered “good” OK and
probably have never stretched myself towards greatness in any aspect of my
life. Good at something was always enough
for me and therefore I was never great at anything. Heck,
I’ve won awards for being “good” at something.
A good (not great) father, husband, businessman, friend etc was fairly
easy, most of the time with a little stretching from time to time. No real lengthy stretching was required.
So because
I was good and good in our society is certainly considered OK in comparison to
fair or bad, I was satisfied until I now sit back and wonder why I never became
“great” at anything. In other words,
many times I was accepted and lauded for my “good” performance because it was
being compared to less than good performance and this acted as a barrier for my
achieving being “great”. I became
satisfied with what we consider “normal” performance.
Jim states
that one must be deeply passionate about something that one can be the best at
in the world. A natural talent in some
direction coupled with a deep passion can indeed bring about greatness as we
have readily seen in the athletic world where measurement is easily attained. So let’s assume the top 5% performance grade
in any field of endeavor equals greatness for sake of discussion.
It is
simply a matter of talent and passion.
Before it is too late I must try and find a talent and a passion for
myself!
Somewhere I
remember the following: Luther Burbank
fell in love with plants, Ford fell in love with cars, Sir Thomas Beecham fell
in love with music, Pablo Picasso fell in love with painting, BE VERY CAREFUL
what you fall in love with, since you too can become great!
Have a
great day,
Hugh
13 comments on Good = Enemy of Great
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Awesome post... mine will follow about the greatest![THUMBUP]
Good ...er...GREAT post!
"If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans." - Max Ehrmann
And we are great for different reasons. Some are great actors or statesmen or musicians. Some are great thinkers and philosophers. Some are gentle souls who remind us what it is to be human. These souls are the conscience to the rest of us. Though I have never met you, by your written words, you seem to fall into that last category.
I could learn from you about living with quiet humility and imparting wisdom.