Quotes About Excellence

best" means showing up and doing your best without being attached to the outcome.

Today, did I do my best and forget the rest?

There is no passion to be found in playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related.

EQ is so critical to success that it accounts for 58 percent of performance in all types of jobs. It's the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence.

Don't thank me,' Mr. Curtain called as the door slid closed. 'Impress me!

Don't thank me," Mr. Curtain called as the door slid closed. "Impress me!

when mediocrity follows talent, and the pattern remains the same, decay is inevitable.

the Prussian General Staff was a self-regenerating institution, not dependent upon the random appearance of great leaders, because — among many other things — it automatically produced outstanding leaders.

68 Gold Medallion awards for its books, more than any other publisher.

I am the best there is and always will be the best

They are often extremely competent people who are committed to doing things very well and have a fear of making mistakes and being human. They tend to be judgmental of others

Stop making the perfect enemy of the good.

Teams that are willing to commit publicly to specific results are more likely to work with a passionate, even desperate desire to achieve those results. Teams that say, "We'll do our best," are subtly, if not purposefully, preparing themselves for failure.

Take a bullet for the client. Make everything about the client. Honor the client's work. Do the dirty work.

Once we achieve clarity and buy-in, it is then that we have to hold each other accountable for what we sign up to do, for high standards of performance and behavior.

The ultimate test of a great team is results.

Because people who aren't good at their jobs don't want to be measured, because then they have to be accountable for something. Great employees love that kind of accountability. They crave it. Poor ones run away from it.

None of this depressed Picasso, nor yet Kahnweiler: there is a kind of abuse that is a guarantee of excellence and almost of success, for surely people do not utter such shrill and vehement protests unless some Freudian resistance is at work—unless at some level they are aware of the validity of what they see.

We are always waiting for the perfect brief from the perfect client. It almost never happens [...] Whatever is on your desk right now, that's the one. Make it the best you possibly can.

no art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it.

no art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it."1

Empathy is probably the single most important difference between a good hacker and a great one.

With ambition, you tend to get one step below what you aim for. So unless you try to be the best, you won't even be good.