Tom Peters' In Pursuit of Excellence showed how Japanese companies outpaced American ones by starting with excellence as a core commitment. Setting an ambitious goal from the beginning shapes execution, adds meaning, and pays off both emotionally and financially.
Start with excellence. I think the business book that's influenced me the most is a really old one from like the early 1980s. A guy named Tom Peters wrote something called In Pursuit of Excellence, where he was going around looking for excellence, particularly in American companies, comparing that with their Japanese counterparts, which would have been eating their lunch. What I have found is that when someone starts with a commitment to doing something really well, to greatness, saying, I'm going to do this and knock it out of the park. The, you create the requirements for actually executing on that excellence. And you also create more meaning. I think when people are looking for like a good job or a good effort or what have you, when they feel like they have performed at a high level and they think they've created excellence, we are rewarded both emotionally, but also financially. So I would ask you, how can you start with excellence in your efforts? What is the high bar that you're looking to clear?
