Good Is The Enemy of Great
Exploring the obstacles to being better than good
Republished from Tom Lemanski on SMART Leadership
The title of this briefing, "Good is the
Enemy of Great" is the first sentence of Jim Collins' business best
seller,
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
| Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the reasons that we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, precisely because it is easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great precisely because they become quite good. - and that is their main problem. |
Why is it so easy to settle for good? Do we have a a natural tendency to move toward a state of apathy?
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Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops. - Thomas J. Watson of IBM |
How many times have you seen this occur? In how many different aspects of life? Do you aspire to individual or business greatness? Or, are you willing to settle for good? Where have you decided that you're already successful? What processes do you have for overcoming complacency and apathy? If you're saying to yourself: Who cares, we're doing OK. You're in good company. But, will you ever join great company?
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Success is a journey, not a destination. -Arthur Ashe |
For deeper analysis...
Is it possible that complacency and apathy are a natural and necessary phenomenon in the process of growth and development? The Law of Process offers deeper insight:
