What is excellence? Simply put, it is the badge you get when you are outstanding in whatever you do.
It is just top-notch. It is consistent, repeatable output from you. To identify who has achieved excellence in life, my general rule of thumb is to ask how do we know that person? If they are not from within our known circle of family, friends and immediate co-workers, we know them because they have achieved a certain level of excellence in what they do: Rahul Dravid, Narayana Murthy, Amitabh Bachchan, to name a few.
Examples of excellence closer to you would be the person who topped your college, the go-to person on your team who is recognised for her deep understanding of the product, a leading surgeon or a lawyer and so on.
Five Prongs of Excellence
1. Excellence differentiates extraordinary people from ordinary people.
2. Most of us want excellence but are not ready to strive to achieve excellence.
3. Excellence starts with visualising a very clear end state you wish to achieve, and passionately and relentlessly driving towards it.
4. Excellence means improving your performance consistently and continuously.
5. When you benchmark against other significant achievers, you improve and grow.
Why excellence?
Each one of us may not have what it takes to become a Sachin Tendulkar or Ratan Tata, but each one of us has to become the best we can be to realise the potential we have.
Excellence is the not-so-secret ingredient that is needed to become the best version of ourselves, to slash through whatever is inhibiting our best from blossoming.
The result: becoming exceedingly good in our area of expertise, with the knowledge, skills and experience that are needed.
What does excellence do? It builds a reputation and brand that sets you apart from the herd.
If you like coding, become the best coder you possibly can. Define what it takes to become an excellent coder and do whatever it takes to get there. You may have to take a few classes, get exposure to certain kinds of projects, but there is no rocket science except relentlessly pushing yourself to get there.
If you are a teacher or a doctor, become the best you can be. It makes you run your own race and opens up new paths of success.
I had the good fortune of getting a peek into the mind of Rahul Dravid, one of the all-time bests in the game of cricket. He had a deep, burning desire to become simply the best in the game. Not to make money or become famous, just to become the best, period.
His goal was not just wishful thinking. It was reinforced with a solid strategy and an execution plan. The plan had the nuts and bolts of how to achieve his goal — mastering techniques, relentless hard work, fitness training, mental toughness and so on.
The results of becoming one of the best in the world are fame, recognition and money. But these were not the drivers, these were the by-products. Like Rahul, I have seen many others reaching excellence over a period of time through passionate desire, proper strategy, continuous improvement and relentless hard work.
(Excerpted with permission from ‘Achieving Meaningful Success: Unleash the Power of Me!’ by Vivek Mansingh, with Rachna Thakurdas, Penguin Business.)