Excellence Is All Around Us

Do you know how much time, money, and energy we spend on businesses and people who are anti-excellent? Too much, too much, and too much. It's not that we don't appreciate excellence, but rather, we seem to be obsessed with this notion of "supporting" businesses and people out of a twisted sense of pity, guilt, and obligation.

There's an irony in our behavior. While we're busy tolerating mediocrity (or worse), excellence is all around us. It would be one thing if all there were were subpar businesses and people. Luckily, though, that's not the case. Wherever you reside, excellence is all around you!

In just the past few days, I had lunch at a killer pizza joint (excellence!), spent time with an amazing educator who is finding new ways to drive impact with teens (excellence!), purchased 30 pounds of high-quality meat from my favorite meat market (excellence!), spent several hours with our Northern Vessel baristas (excellence!), had a date night at the newly crowned "best brewpub in America" (excellence!), got a haircut by my always amazing barber (excellence!), picked up a few new reads at my favorite little bookstore (excellence!), and watched my kids be instructed by their rock band teacher (excellence!).

I could have easily spent my time, energy, and money "supporting" other businesses, but to what end? To encourage mediocrity? To artificially prop up someone who hasn't earned it?

Here's how I look at it. We only have so much money, time, and energy to go around. Every dollar, hour, and calorie we spend on one thing is a dollar, hour, and calorie we don't get to spend on another. If that's true, then we each have a series of critical choices before us each day.

I'm not asking you to choose winners and punish losers. I'm merely suggesting we should expect excellence, encourage excellence, demand excellence, receive excellence, and reward excellence. Doing so has a powerful impact on the world around us. It forces businesses and organizations to either become more excellent, or fizzle out. It's simple. It's profound. It's impactful.

____

Did someone forward you this post? We're glad you're here! If you'd like to subscribe to The Daily Meaning to receive these posts directly in your inbox (for free!), just CLICK THIS LINK. It only takes 10 seconds.