Is it Skill or Attitude which matters to achieve Excellence?
Excellence – Yes, Even I remember the dialogue from 3 idiots, where Chanchad baba says “Strive for Excellence, Success will automatically fall at your feet”. How far is it true for us normal human beings to keep on chasing Excellence without asking for the success as reward?
Let’s tweak now – Is Excellence a Skill or an Attitude?
Recently, I attend a World Conference… Before that I had a feeling of inadequacy, I was not sure what I was going into. For first 2 hours, I was in awe. Till I entered the hall, I was thinking that It was the biggest thing I ever did to enter this Conference, But once I was here, it changed my perception to getting out of this hall will be the biggest thing, I’m ever going to do in my life.
For first 2 hours, I only see the faces who are better than everybody and at everything in this world. And quietly when I sat on my designated chair, I thought its true, which still exacerbate my awe. I felt a bit small for few minutes and thought, should I be here or am I worth to be here? My inner conscience told me ‘Nothing in this world is worth enuf, until u want to make it worth enuf for you’. So I glued my arse to the chair and started hearing to the speeches of the dignitaries on the stage.
Lots of things were going in my mind like an automated slideshow with few pictures n texts.
A perennial debate took birth in my mind between what’s more important – The end or The path?
And I can understand why lots of people including me believe that end is crucial; b'coz end is often a driver of ambition. We always set ourselves at these result goals and we want to reach there at any cost. The end is something we always look upto as it’s a goal or a vision for us. An ambition needs a driver, and most of the times, these ends become drivers.
But, in the course of years, I’ve discovered that people who strive for end goals than passage goals or journey goals… I mean, Journey Vs Destination here. And most of us feel that Its destination which counts not as much as journey. The end at all cost pervade is the source of anxiety. It adds anxiety and turbulence to our system.
For e.g.: In our college days, We always thought of what grade or how much % I need to get to get an admission in top B college. This is End goal. But how much time we spent in thinking, How will we get to that grade? We would set ourclf to reach 95%, 99%. And by setting these goals, It would not be an ambition anymore, it’s already turned into anxiety. And, if u don’t reach 99%, you are choked.
By putting the result or end goal first, It does one more thing. It creates a temptation to do whatever it takes to win and sometimes when we start to walk down that path of whatever it takes to win, we don’t always check whether the path we are following is right one or filled up with danger.
Whenever I meet any of my School/College friends and when I tell them, I’m working as Quality Manager with Wipro, they ask what’s my salary package? Is that to compare with others in our friends circle?
Yes, I need money, But I’ve put it at second. I came here to build a career. And I know no human being in this world who has striving to build a career and at the same time thought, from where and how thick my next cheque will be. If you strive for Excellence in your career, You needn’t care for cheques.
I learnt it a very early stage that ‘ The path to excellence is through efforts and not results’.
Yet, I have seen too many young outrageous talents in the market who chase the result(money in some cases). But for me, Excellence is chasing my professional/performance goals and letting result take care of itself.
Very important thing I believe in is to make The process of achievement success supreme and make result irrelevant. The idea being, if we perfect the process of performance and don’t allow the pressure of your result to choke your performance. For me, this is the wonderful path to journey on Excellence, b’coz very often, We don’t have control on what’s coming our way.
For instance, we are sitting in a competition and I have the bigwigs of all paths competing against me. But I don’t have the control of what he is going to do to compete me. All, I have control over is what I want to do and am going to do. If I keep on thinking what he is going to do, then I’m only preventing myself from performing as well as I can.
I truly believe in it that ‘Do what you can do best, and take what you get’.
I remember my Mom telling me someday – ‘Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachna’ It means - You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
Do the best you can…. I don’t think you can do more than that…..
One of the other problems also while putting ends before the means is this six letter world ‘ETHICS’.
The more you see in public life, the more you see in the frontpages of newspapers today, the more you wonder if this beautiful six letter word is banned by the people who have control over our lives.
I think adherence to Ethics allows you to put the end where it deserves to be and concentrate on the path.
We always seek excellence in results, But somehow I’m convinced that Excellence resides in performance, Even more so in the preparation for this performance.
And great people become great, b’coz they excel in their preparation. Especially, what we often see on the battlefield is the end result for all the perfect preparations what have gone before performing.
I say to my peers that, you should always give 100% to everything you do. The attitude what you carry towards every aspect or project should be 100%.
If I’m with something, I make sure I give 100% to it and when I move on, I again think, this was the thing I wanted to give 100%. When done with this, Again I say to the next thing… Actually this was the thing I wanted to give 100% to…. This is how I discovered the little things which make good to great just happen if you give 100% to every moment.
On the funny part, I hear people saying I’m giving 110% or even 150% to it.
And nowadays, even that’s not enuf, people say they are giving 200% for it.
My question to those intellectuals is ‘Is it really possible to give 200%?’ Actually, you can’t do anything beyond 100%.
You have just 24hrs in a day to work. And if you work for whole 24hrs, then its 100%. You can’t work for 48hrs in a day? Can you???
The next thing I want to know is ‘Why are we unhappy with 100%?’. We can’t do more than 100%. Can we?
But, If we give 100% to each and every aspect and that’s what performance goals tell us… You give 100% and take the result as it comes to you.
If you give your 100% all the time and lose, and you know you have done the best you can… You can sleep well and also you can think, how you can work hard and comeback.
Excuses –
Whenever we lose, we always seek excuses. Trust me, Excellence never ever seeks excuses.
People who have excelled never say “I would’ve been good but……” and if somebody does so, then he is trying to assign the blame to someone else. So, you are not that great anymore.
To me, Excellence is the series of 100%.
In life, if you seek Excellence. Always seek it from people greater than you. Sometimes if you reach a level of Excellence and if you are insecure of what u’ve achieved, then you will surround yourself with people who are lesser than you. And the moment you surround yourself with people lesser than you, You stop growing. For a purely selfish reason and for nothing else, Always surround yourself with people who are greater or better than you. B'coz then you learn and you grow.
It might not be the instance that great people around you should be better than you in the same profession. You can’t expect all the gold medalists of university to be surrounded…. But you can watch a craftsman carving an idol and say ‘Wow, the great discipline and excellence he brings in during his work. Can I be like this in my profession the way he is in his…’
And at a certain stage of reaching excellence, people start hating criticism. I mean, what the worst thing will happen is somebody will say that you were wrong. You might be. You never know..
It is always important to keep people around you who will tell whether what you are doing is right or wrong.
I’ve seen people living in this rarified bubble where they think, whatever they are doing is right. B’coz they don’t have anybody around them to say ‘Listen buddy, what you are doing is wrong’ or they hate to be with such people. These people will achieve success, But not sustain it. They will have an abyss fall after sometime.
Arrogance often comes in the path of excellence. It’s one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the way to excellence.
In the world of excellence, if you have ego and anger on your side, then you don’t need any opponent to defeat you. You have already done 90% of the job of ruining yourself anyway.
I don’t have an ego while I’m having a meeting with my peers or reportees. B’coz if I make them look good and as comfortable as possible, then they are relaxed. If they are relaxed, they will listen to me and perform very well on the floor. And if my team performs very well on the floor, then automatically my goal is achieved. But if he is insecure and scared whether I’m gonna scream at him, then I’m not gonna produce a good performer.
So sometimes by subjugating yourself, you achieve excellence. This will not work in Sales and even in Medical Reps profile. And trust me, Medical reps job is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. We make fun of those many a times.
But subjugating self has worked for me.
We always look for talent and say ‘Wow, he is so talented. I wish I could be like that’. And yet you feel that Excellence is not about that talent alone. A major part of excellence is nothing to do with talent. And once you go beyond a level in life, ability or talent is the most useless virtue to possess.
‘It’s what you do with that talent matters’ – Attitude
Beyond a point, Attitude counts far more than what talent does. B’coz talent breeds an ego. And talent never solves the problem beyond a point.
I’ve seen many young guns who are extremely talented. But when they faced a roadblock, they didn’t knew what to do…. B’coz they never had to struggle to succeed. They always use their talent to succeed.
‘In the Scotland army, when they are building an elite core team. They look at your career record, your track record. And if you have never failed, then they don’t pick you. B’coz they say, if this man experiences failure, will he know what to do? Instead, they pick people who failed and bounced back. I’m stressing on word Bounced here. Coz, It’s your attitude which will give you that springboard effect to bounce back.
Coming back to Excellence, is what.. being in top 5% or top 10% in your profession? Is talent needed to be in that top 10%? And if you are there they everybody in that top 10% is equally talented right? So now what’s your USP here??? Answer is again, It’s what you do with that talent counts and brings you to the limelight.
Whom we recollect when we say talented? Bill Gates, NRN, Tendulkar, Bachchan, Premji and many more… For these guys, what mattered most was their Work Ethics and Attitude far more than talent. I’m not saying they weren’t talented. But how they made use of that talent through their attitude clicked the success button.
When Bill Gates was born, the nurse didn’t handover the baby to his mother Mary Maxwell Gates and told ‘Here is your $54 bn USD owner’. It’s not his talent what has made him the richest person on the planet earth. It’s his work ethic, his attitude and more than that, it’s his passion to reach the zenith.
‘Ability and talent opens the first door, it might open the second door. In some cases, it might open the third door as well. But not the last door for you. Coz the guy who is competing with you is also having equal ability as you and he will not say, oh you are genius and I will step back to give u success.
The second last important thing about Excellence is ‘Learning from mistakes’.
There are people around who are soooo driven and they think that A mistake is a crime and a matter of shame.
Let’s be honest to ourself guys – Deep down inside, when you do a mistake. What is the first thing you tell to yourself? – I hope nobody has looked at me.
I will tell you that mistakes can be your good friend. B’coz ‘The more mistakes you make, the more you know What not to do’.
And ‘Excellence is as much knowing what to do and knowing what not to do’. And if you can be outstanding at knowing what not to do, then the road to what to do opens up before you.. isn’t it?
Need not apply the logic what we IT freaks usually do like – A mistake made you learn… The more mistakes you do, the more you learn and the more you learn, the more successful you become. We promptly extend the limits to infinity as we usually do and conclude – The most successful guy is one who always makes mistakes JJ. In reality, it doesn’t work like that.
I’m yet to meet a situation in life, where you are not allowed to make mistakes. Everybody is allowed to make mistakes. It’s the second or third mistake which you are not allowed to make. It’s the same mistake you make twice, thrice, then u lose respect.
I’ve made millions of mistakes in life.. Some so embarrassing mistakes in life. But I said, I won’t make them again. Everybody I got into that situation, I said to myself ‘Hang on buddy, Last time you were there, you did it wrong.’
Excellence is about desire.
While working in a call center at start of my career, We weren’t reaching our daily sales targets. I said, let’s do it on this call, It’s me Vs. call and gave 100% for it. It was a sure shot and a dollar tagged against my name. It was a positive sale. The desire grew in me and I wanted to make every call a shot sale. I wanted the calls to come to me now b’coz I wanted to show what I can do with my best abilities.
Desire reaches this stage when you know everything about your profession what needs to be known. Desperation to achieve success generates desire in you.
One thing I always wanted to know – Does Excellence requires luck?
When I was 21, I always debated with my father and used to tell him, there is nothing called luck. If I work hard, then I will get that money. So where is the question of luck here???
He had a smile on his face and told me that, it’s the most common thing at your age. But as you grow older n wiser. You will understand the meaning and importance of luck.
Now Since, I’ve spend to close 8yrs after this debate. I go back and analyze all my efforts and rewards to my efforts and say –
According to me, Luck is a rare combination of your preparation and recognition of the opportunity.
Are you willing to slog your backside off when nobody is watching? And when somebody comes to see you, you are actually exhausted.
Why these football strikers so great? I’ve seen in football where midfielders are running up and down in the ground. But why these strikers are so great. B’coz they recognize the opportunity coming their way and prepare themselves for the strike. They are not lucky here… But they have recognized the opportunity even before it comes and they are geared up for it. In 1994 World cup, Ronaldo was not lucky, But he knew what the right position was even before opportunity would come there.
I’ve seen this excellent performance of Robin Williams in this movie Dead Poets Society. Carpe Diem – Seize the moment.
Most people fail at it. They running a marathon for 21kms, But when it’s a pole. They tend to lose down and an excellent sprinter seizes the moment and puts his leg faster and beats the ribbon.
Excellence gives you the opportunity to seize the moment.
To me, Excellence is also about how confident you are about sharing your knowledge.
If you’ve achieved a certain level and you don’t want to share that knowledge of excellence with others. Then it’s the pathetic level of excellence u’ve achieved.
If I go to Tendulkar and ask him to teach his favorite leg glance, He will teach me, coz he is not insecure whether this guy will come and bat better than me.
This gives me that Excellence is not insecure. You are willing to share your crafts with people. When knowledge comes, it doesn’t come in the sealed envelope.
The other thing is that, Most of us never know, how good we are. Some think we are better than we are, especially lot of us.. And some have no idea, how better we can be.
I’ve found people who have achieved excellence are always willing to stretch a little bit. The attitude of ‘Let me try and see what happens If I try that’. I mean, what’s the worst thing will happen – U’ll fail.
Are you scared of failure? If you are not scared of failure, you try it.
Excellence lives in the present.
Some of us hold on too much with the past. Or some are too anxious about the future. And thus we forget we must maximize what we are doing now.
People who are still gloried about their success in the past and still holding to it will not succeed. Many companies have shut their doors b’coz they always discussed about their glorious days and successful days in the past. Same would’ve hapnd with Microsoft, If they were only holding on to Windows 98.
Excellence doesn’t stay in the past. It is in the present always.
An instance to share – I was attending a week long training with some highly talented maniacs. As the part of the orientation program we were given individual topics to present. We had these two top honchos (managers) who were there and there was a evening party at a bar.
‘You must go to the bar, if you don’t drink. It’s the wonderful place to be on this earth, if don’t drink’. B’coz you hear great stories when you are sober and others are drunk.
And now these both sr. managers are drunk or as they say delightfully high. And one of them asks the other. Why you didn’t make any presentation to these kids today? To which he said, “I’ve been for 25yrs in this profession and I don’t have to prove myself to these kids anymore”. The first person replied. “Everybody know you are great, But they know b’coz others have told them you are great. They ‘vent seen you being great. Wouldn’t that be good, if your follower would learn from your performance than your legend?” – What a great thought… Such things come out only in the bar I believe.
I would like to end this blog with this excellent line from this song called ‘Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle Khuda bande se ye poche bata teri raza kia hai’ from this Pakistani group called Junoon (of Sayynoi fame). – “Raise your level to such a level, that when God wants to grant the fortune. He asks you what do you want?”.
Adios…………
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