Brian Gubernick explores Jim Collins's idea that good is the enemy of great, examining where you're merely satisfied instead of excellent. He walks through relationships, health, wealth, and business, then challenges you to rate your life areas 1-10, skip the middle, and figure out what it takes to move from good to great.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about good and how good is the enemy of great. Now we've all probably heard this phrase before. I want to, I want to do a deep dive into this phrase, make sure we understand what it actually means and what it is we can do to take ourselves from good to in fact great. So the phrase good is the enemy of great is oftentimes associated with this idea that settling for what is merely good can prevent or hinder the pursuit of greatness or excellence. So settling for what's good can limit your ability to achieve greatness or excellence. This is a concept that, that we've seen all over the place, but I think it was really popular— popularized by a book called Good to Great written by a guy named Jim Collins. Now in the context of this phrase, good refers to acceptable, satisfactory, just, just, you know, cruising along, while great actually represents a higher level of achievement, a high level of excellence or, or success. So the idea is that people or organizations that become, call it complacent with, with being good may miss out on the opportunity to strive for and achieve greatness. Now let's think about this good to great phrase and how it applies to our world right now. At No Days Off, we are talking well beyond just business. We're talking, of course, business and finance and wealth and relationships and health. The idea at No Days Off is to get a little bit better every single day. And you choose the area or areas that you're going to get better at. So when I think good to great, let's look at our personal life first. Where do you have some good relationships? What good relationships do you have right now? What good hobbies or, or, or good experiences are you having right now? Now there's nothing wrong with good, but I want to challenge you. We only live once. Time is finite. How could you take some of these good experiences or relationships or hobbies and actually make them something great? Are you happy with good because, well, you've become a bit complacent? You know, when I talk about my daughters, as you've, you know, if you've been a listener to the No Days Off podcast for some time, you've probably heard me bring up my daughters a number of times. I can have some— I could have a really good relationship with each of my kids, not just good, but really good. But I do have to ask myself, being that, man, I only get to be their dad, obviously for as long as I live, but I only get to be their dad in this phase of their life for a very, very, very limited moment of time. How can I take this good relationship that I have during this window of time that is going to close before I know it and make it great? What's missing in the relationship, in those two relationships, my daughters, that would make them great? Where have I accepted good because, well, you know, we're making some progress, and in doing so have limited my ability to make the relationship Even better, make it great. Where have I just accepted satisfactory performance, acceptable performance as it pertains to those two relationships? Now this, this could apply to your health. There are many of you that are, that are pretty damn healthy that are listening to No Days Off. I'm certain. Is your health good? You feel good? What would it take for you to feel great? For you to say your health is great? When I say, how are you doing? How are you feeling? And you say, good. Hey, I'm going to high-five you because that's good to hear. What would it take for you to say great though? I feel great. Now there's several key points I think we need to focus on here, right? As we're talking about good to great. And I just gave examples in relationship and in health, but you could see how this plays out throughout all other areas of life. I think there's a couple points we've got to talk around. We kind of touched on this, this idea of good being complacency and good being contentment. If we become satisfied with our current level of performance and settle for good enough, we might kind of find ourselves in a slippery slope in that we begin to lack motivation. We begin to maybe lack a drive to pursue further improvement. That's not why we're here. That's not why you're listening to this podcast. Continuous improvement. As it pertains to going from good to great, we've got to understand that in pursuit of greatness, it requires a commitment to nonstop improvement, daily improvement. Individuals that are content with being good may miss out on the potential for growth, on the potential for innovation, on the potential for achieving exceptional results. So continuous improvement is mandatory, as is some innovation, and even some risk-taking. Pursuing greatness in all areas of your life may involve taking some risks, may involve you getting outside of your comfort zone. It might involve embracing change and, and just pushing yourself. So many people settle for good because they're, they're afraid. They're afraid of the innovation or the risk-taking. They're afraid of jeopardizing what's good in pursuit of great. And I understand that to some extent, but I also recognize again, time is finite. Those who settle for what is good may be less inclined to take the risks necessary for the transformative success I'm describing. If you're on this path from good to great, you can't be shortsighted. You gotta have a long-term vision. Achieving greatness requires a long-term vision. Why? Because it takes a sustained effort. I mentioned continuous improvement. Good to great, you got to have a long-term vision. Let's go back to my health. Let's go back to my relationships with my girls. What's my long-term vision? If I'm short-term, well, good may get by. But if I'm long-term, I'm looking for great. Lastly, you kind of touched on it. As we're thinking around this concept, striving for excellence is the ultimate goal, I think, in going from good to great. This striving for excellence— individuals that aim for excellence in all aspects of their endeavors, they push beyond mediocrity. They avoid the trap of complacency. Now, it's important to note when I talk about Good to Great, that this concept, it's not to dismiss the value of being good, right? Like, good is good. But instead, it kind of emphasizes the danger of becoming complacent, of settling, of settling for mediocrity, of not reaching your potential. When there's so much potential to achieve something so great, it is your responsibility, it's your duty to pursue it. So this idea can really just encourages— Good to Great just encourages this mindset of continuous improvement, of innovation, of commitment to reaching higher levels of success in all areas of your life. So the focusing question today: where are you sitting at good? Where have you become complacent? Where have you accepted, you know, a certain performance because it's comfortable? And are you jeopardizing something that can in fact be great? I want to challenge you to figure that out today. Look across your world, your relationships, your health, your wealth, your finance, your, your job, your income, whatever it may be, your business. I want you to look at those things and ask yourself, how would I rate this 1 to 10? Can't use a 7, of course. 1 to 10. If you're sitting in that 5 or 6, it's probably good. What would it take to get to an 8 to 9, or, or dare I say, 10? That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
