All emphasis is the author's.
“I suggest that you pursue a commitment to personal excellence rather than success, based on your own God-given potential. Success and excellence are often competing ideals. Being successful does not necessarily mean that you will be excellent, and being excellent does not necessarily mean that you will be successful. Success is attaining or achieving cultural goals, which elevates one's importance in the society in which he lives. Excellence is the pursuit of the quality of one's work and effort, whether the culture recognizes it or not. I once asked Segovia how many hours a day he practiced. He responded, "Christopher, I practice 2 1/2 hours in the morning and 2 1/2 hours every afternoon." I thought to myself, "If Segovia needs to practice five hours every day, how much more do I need to practice?"
“Success seeks status, power, prestige, wealth, and privilege. Excellence is internal-- seeking satisfaction in having done your best. Success is external-- how you have done in comparison to others. Excellence is how you have done in relation to your own potential. For me, success seeks to please men, but excellence seeks to please God.
“Success grants its rewards to few, but is the dream of the multitudes. Excellence is available to all, but is accepted by only a few. Success engenders a fantasy and a compulsive groping for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Excellence brings us down to reality with a deep gratitude for the promise of joy when we do our best. Excellence cultivates principles, character, and integrity. Success may be cheap, and you can take shortcuts to get there. You will pay the full price for excellence; and it will never be discounted. Excellence will always cost you everything, but it is the most lasting and rewarding ideal. What drives you-- success or excellence?”
---Christopher Parkening
2 comments:
I think most folk, like myself would react almost instinctively and say they aim for excellence first, just as it seems to me most come to work intent on doing the best they can.
Hence I think it is only a minority who engage in power struggles or office politics but that activity inevitably attracts all of the attention – oil for the squeaky wheel.
I agree it is true to say that excellence will not necessarily leads to success because of culture and societal attitudes, but equally excellence can also bind the community together to ensure a fairer successful result.
Australia’ current rate of unemployment has not deteriorated anywhere near anyone’s projections during the latest business cycle, due to a number of factors, not least of which is the unprecedented surge in co operative arrangements between employers and employees to retain staff. I think this is an example of excellence from both parties motivated by the desire to help one another; to be fair, honest, and totally transparent.
The excellent result could only have been dreamed of during past occasions when wholesale retrenchments were the order of the day.
Best wishes
What an excellent take on this topic.
In consideration, I can say that for myself, personally, there are those things in which I would be satisfied with nothing less than excellence, while there are others where a moderate degree of success would be seen as sufficient.
Further, the order of those things would change only rarely.
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