August 10, 2009

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In This Newsletter:

A Quest for Excellence - Article

Join Others on a Quest for Excellence

Excellent Service

Greetings!

On Monday, September 14th I will be hosting a free, LIVE tele-seminar on Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change. DETAILS & REGISTRATION HERE. I hope you and your team make plans to join us!

- Jon

A Quest for Excellence

This past Tuesday night I had the opportunity to speak to the Atlanta Falcons football team. Head Coach Mike Smith had all his players and coaches read Training Camp before I arrived. As I walked around their locker-room and training complex I was happy to see our 20 Ways to Get Mentally Tough and 11 Traits of the Best of the Best posters posted all around as a testimony to how the team is embracing the message. Even more encouraging and humbling was having the players come up after my talk to share how they benefited from the book. One of the things many of the players commented on from my talk is a lesson I’d like to share with you in this newsletter today.

There is a difference between success and excellence.

Success is often measured by comparison to others. Excellence, on the other hand, is all about being the best we can be and maximizing our gifts, talents and abilities to perform at our highest potential.

We live in a world that loves to focus on success and loves to compare. We are all guilty of doing this. However, I believe that to be our best we must focus more on excellence and less on success. We must focus on being the best we can be and realize that our greatest competition is not someone else but ourselves.

For example, coaching legend John Wooden often wouldn’t tell his players who they were playing each game. He felt that knowing the competition was irrelevant. He believed that if his team played to the best of their ability they would be happy with the outcome. In fact, John Wooden never focused on winning. He had his team focus on teamwork, mastering the fundamentals, daily improvement and the process that excellence requires. As a result he and his teams won A LOT.

A focus on excellence was also the key for golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. His secret was to play the course not the competition. He simply focused on playing the best he could play against the course he was playing. While others were competing against Jack, he was competing against the course and himself.

The same can be said for Apple’s approach with the iPod and iPhone. When they created these products they didn’t focus on the competition. Instead they focused on creating the best product they could create. As a result, rather than measuring themselves against others they have become the measuring stick.

We have a choice as individuals, organizations and teams. We can focus on success and spend our life looking around to see how our competition is doing, or we can look straight ahead towards the vision of greatness we have for ourselves and our teams. We can look at competition as the standard or as an indicator of our progress towards our own standards. We can chase success or we can embark on a quest for excellence and focus 100% of our energy to become our best... and let success find us.

Ironically, when our goal is excellence the outcome and byproduct is often success.

What role do you think competition plays in the excellence process? Share your thoughts on our blog.

Stay Positive!
- Jon

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Join Others on a Quest for Excellence

"I love Training Camp and I am sharing the lessons learned in the book with my children. I am amazed on how much my seven year old son has grasped some of the concepts and is beginning to do the things when I am not around. I often come home from work and find him playing catch by himself because he says that someday he is going to be an All Star in baseball. I even found him outside in the dark hitting the ball around the yard because he wants to be great that much. He now grasps the concept of practice and how it can make you great. I can tell you from playing with him that his game has improved 100% this summer. Thanks!"

- Mark Wisniewski, CPA, CFA
Executive Vice President, Busey Wealth Management

"My daughter Emily (18) graduates Saturday, she is headed to college to run Cross Country and Track (Div I). She read your book just prior to the State Meet two weekends ago, and in her pre-race speech to her 4 x 400 team she told them they needed to "Leave a Legacy" with their effort. They were seeded 12th out of 16 qualifying teams, with a 4:06 PR. They blew away the school record (4:03), finishing 5th in NC with a 3:58, leaving a legacy at their high school. Every graduating senior track runner signs their name in the locker room, on a special wall, she signed her name along with the quote "Leave a Legacy" How cool is that? She looks forward to meeting you someday. All three daughters have read The Energy Bus as well."
- Todd Gothberg

"Dear Mr. Gordon,
I just want to thank you for writing Training Camp. I read it this summer and it helped me stay calm and focused during my tryouts and guess what, I made the team. Thank you."
- Jimmy

Excellent Service

Every now and then you come across a business that provides above and beyond service. I want to thank Association Studios for their help when I needed it most.

www.AssociationStudios.com