"Genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains."
-Thomas Carlyle
Essayist, satirist, historian
1795-1881
"Y'know, I've been working on my career now for five years and I'm pretty much convinced that success is basically a matter of getting up earlier and staying later at the job..."
-Anonymous young businessman
Seat 11-B – New York to Pittsburgh – 1982
What is Excellence?
We think Excellence means extraordinary care with the details....
The trouble with excellence is that it makes the really difficult appear really easy – off handed even.
As young people see excellence in the workplace, in the media; they don't see the weeks, months, days and hours of practice, refinement and analysis required to craft a winning result... So as they find their way onto the varsity, they don't realize that the time and effort required to get to the top are going to be greater than they may have expected. (What about those “overnight success” stories? Exactly…)
The tendency is for many to settle somewhere short of excellence. They start too late, don't think it through, and don’t adopt a process to guide their practice and preparation. They decide to hang it up the night before the meeting without a rehearsal, forget to designate a teammate to wrangle the equipment. So when the time comes and the chips are down, there's a room full of people who are going through the motions together for the first time, and it shows – something short of excellence...
It's not that the winners are geniuses, smarter or just naturally better, but that they put in fifty per cent more time, beyond getting the strategy, idea, structure, words, opening, visuals, examples, materials, team, the overall look and packaging, and rehearsals to make it go right, and the logistical plan to get everyone on deck in advance of the meeting. It's that they keep going even so far as to anticipate the tough questions they might receive and the best answers they might provide... and which teammates might be called to deliver... and then they rehearse.
In your own life, start by asking what you expect to achieve this year. Build the plan, now.
In your career, consider what growth you intend to achieve, and what changes that will bring about. Start planning, now.
In your family or social life, consider whom you may serve, and what new adventures you may enjoy. Plan, now.
It’s been nearly thirty years since that flight, and I believe my seatmate was correct.
Genius. The infinite capacity for taking pains. Always.
Start now, and make it look easy.
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