It’s Not Enough To Be Good – You Must Always Shoot For Great.

It’s not enough to just be good at what you do.

Good is nice. Good is…fine.

But good doesn’t get you across the line 80% of the time. Here’s why.

Good is the baseline. Nobody is hustling in your space with any degree of success if they suck. People look at results more than resumés today, and if you’re bad at what you do, the lack of positive results will leave you high and dry and lonely.

You’re not going to start a billion dollar company if you set out to just build a good company. You’re not even going to be able to run a successful thousand dollar company. You’ll be coasting on the bare minimum of effort, energy and focus because that’s what good gets you.

You’re not going to be at your best.

You’re not even going to recognise what your best could have been.

Everyone reaches that low watermark of being good. If that’s all you’ve got going for you, there’s no way you are ever going to stand out. You need to be aiming for greatness.

Greatness in your writing. In the way you speak and carry yourself. The way you think, the way you read, how much you read, what you read. The way you manage your work, the way you accomplish the work, and the way you exceed the expectations of yourself and the people around you.

“I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.” ― John Keats

[This post by Jon Westenberg first appeared on Medium and has been reproduced with permission.]

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