The Pursuit of Excellence

The Pursuit of Excellence Plot Summary

Introduction

The alarm rings at 5 AM, and despite the comfort of your warm bed, you rise. Not because you have to, but because you choose to. In the quiet hours before the world awakens, you find time to work on yourself—reading, exercising, planning. This isn't about perfection; it's about the relentless pursuit of becoming better than you were yesterday. We all know someone like this, someone who embodies excellence not as a destination but as a journey. Perhaps you aspire to be that person yourself. Excellence isn't reserved for the gifted few born with extraordinary talent. Rather, it's available to anyone willing to embrace the challenging path of continuous improvement. Throughout these pages, we'll explore the mindsets, habits, and practices of those who have achieved remarkable results across various fields. From athletes who train in obscurity for years before their moment in the spotlight, to business leaders who transformed industries through persistent innovation, to everyday heroes who quietly impact lives—their stories reveal a common thread. Excellence isn't about flawless performance; it's about the courage to pursue growth when staying comfortable would be easier. It's about making the choice, day after day, to take one more step toward becoming your best self.

Chapter 1: Building the Foundation: Purpose and Growth Mindset

Theodore Roosevelt was undersized and often sick as a child due to severe asthma. His parents weren't certain he would survive. Young Teddy was "nervous and timid" by his own admission, yet he admired fearless men who could "hold their own in the world." When he was 12, his father delivered a pivotal message: "You have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body, the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make the body." Roosevelt took this challenge to heart, creating a disciplined process to transform himself physically. He lifted weights, rowed, and boxed. By the time he graduated from Harvard, he had become one of those men who could "hold their own." This work ethic guided him throughout his remarkable life—from war hero to governor to becoming the youngest president in US history at age 42. Even at the end of his life, Roosevelt's commitment to growth remained unwavering. When he died in his sleep in 1919, they found a book under his pillow—evidence that even after a lifetime of accomplishment, he never stopped learning. Carol Dweck, a renowned psychologist, would recognize Roosevelt's journey as a perfect example of what she calls a "growth mindset"—the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. In her research, Dweck discovered that some children actually got excited when given problems they couldn't solve. "My eyes kind of bugged out," she recalled. "Those kids taught me something that determined the rest of my career. I wanted to figure out what kind of 'special sauce' they had." That special sauce turned out to be a fundamental belief about human potential. People with a growth mindset understand that talents and intelligence are merely starting points. They embrace challenges, persist through obstacles, learn from criticism, and find inspiration in others' success. As Dweck puts it, "Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them?" The foundation of excellence begins with this mindset shift—from seeing yourself as fixed and complete to viewing yourself as a work in progress. Like Roosevelt transforming his physical self or Dweck's students tackling impossible problems with enthusiasm, excellence requires embracing the discomfort of growth. The journey toward your best self starts with believing that your qualities are not carved in stone but can be cultivated through effort and learning.

Chapter 2: Focus and Discipline: The Power of Consistent Action

Eliud Kipchoge holds the official world record for the marathon at 2:01:39. Of the 13 officially sanctioned marathons he has run, he's won 11. He is the only known person to ever run the 26.2 miles of a marathon in under two hours. In the running community, Kipchoge is called "The GOAT" (greatest of all time). Born in Kenya and raised by a single mother, he did not start training seriously until after graduating from secondary school in 1999. What transformed this humble man into the world's greatest marathoner? According to Kipchoge himself: "Discipline equals freedom. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions." This counterintuitive philosophy guides his training. While others might let external influences impact their work, Kipchoge maintains unwavering discipline, adhering to his daily process of improvement. This discipline, he believes, creates real freedom. Kipchoge also emphasizes that "athletics is not so much about the legs. It's about the heart and mind." He internalizes his goals until he truly believes he's capable of achieving them. This belief creates confidence that becomes self-fulfilling. Perhaps most surprisingly for what appears to be a solitary sport, Kipchoge insists: "You cannot train alone and expect to run a fast time. There is a formula: 100% of me is worth nothing compared to one percent of the whole team." His training sessions always include others who help him improve. Mike Trout, one of baseball's greatest players, demonstrates similar discipline through consistency. Despite being an All-Star eight times and MVP three times, Trout doesn't focus on these accolades. Instead, he values consistency in the fundamentals. When asked what statistic he hopes people will remember about him, Trout pointed to his consistent home-to-first base running times: "3.9 and 4 flat." Every time he runs to first base, regardless of the situation, Trout gives maximum effort with remarkable consistency. The pursuit of excellence requires this kind of disciplined focus on process rather than outcomes. Those who sustain excellence understand that daily actions compound over time. As Jacob Riis wrote in a quote hanging in the San Antonio Spurs' locker room: "When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before." Excellence emerges not from occasional heroic efforts but from consistent, disciplined action focused on what truly matters.

Chapter 3: Embracing Resistance: Turning Challenges into Strength

Until May 6, 1954, the fastest any human being had ever run a mile was 4:01.4. For nearly 70 years, runners worldwide had tried to break the four-minute barrier, all without success. Then came Roger Bannister, a medical student who trained just one hour per day. The experts believed breaking this barrier would require perfect conditions: 68-degree weather, no wind, a hard dry clay track, and a huge crowd. Bannister had none of these advantages when he ran his historic 3:59.4 mile on a cold, wet day at Oxford's Iffley Road Track before a small crowd. What separated Bannister from others was his mindset. He approached each race like an experiment, writing: "Improvement in running depends on continuous self-discipline by the athlete himself, on acute observation of his reaction to races and training, and above all on judgment." Most importantly, Bannister believed the impossible was possible. He would close his eyes and visualize the race step by step, creating the mental image of success. "The mental approach is all important," he wrote, "because the strength and power of the mind are without limit." The proof that the barrier was psychological rather than physical came just 46 days later when Australian John Landy ran a mile in 3:57.9. Within a year, three more runners broke the four-minute mark in the same race. Today, the record stands at 3:43.13. As professors Yoram Wind and Colin Crook note in their book "The Power of Impossible Thinking": "What changed was the mental model. The runners of the past had been held back by a mindset that said they could not surpass the four-minute mile." James Stockdale, a Navy fighter pilot shot down over Vietnam in 1965, demonstrated this mindset through seven years of brutal torture as a prisoner of war. When asked how he survived without breaking, Stockdale replied: "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail." Yet when asked who didn't make it out, Stockdale answered: "The optimists. They were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And they died of a broken heart." From this came what Jim Collins called the Stockdale Paradox: "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be." Excellence requires this delicate balance—unwavering belief in ultimate success combined with clear-eyed acceptance of present challenges. By embracing resistance rather than avoiding it, we develop the resilience necessary for sustained excellence. The path forward isn't about eliminating obstacles but learning to transform them into stepping stones.

Chapter 4: Finding Your Fuel: What Drives Lasting Excellence

Howard Thurman was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1899, growing up when discrimination was legal and lynching was common. Raised by his grandmother Nancy, a former slave who couldn't read or write, Thurman would later become Morehouse College's valedictorian and an ordained minister. Though relatively unknown today, he profoundly influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who often visited Thurman's home on Sunday afternoons to watch baseball and discuss ideas. Thurman had met Gandhi in India and shared his philosophy of nonviolent resistance, which King later incorporated into the civil rights movement. One day, a young person Thurman was mentoring asked, "What does the world need me to do?" Before the question was finished, Thurman interrupted: "Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who come alive." This perspective shifts our thinking from solving finite problems to pursuing infinite growth and contribution. Jerry Seinfeld articulated a similar philosophy during a conversation with Howard Stern. When Stern suggested that success comes from willpower, Seinfeld corrected him: "That was not will. What you were using, what Michael Jordan uses, and what I use is not will. It's love. When you love something, it's a bottomless pool of energy. That's where the energy comes from. But you have to love it sincerely. Not because you're going to make money from it, be famous, or get whatever you want to get. When you do it because you love it, then you can find yourself moving up and getting really good at something you wanted to be really good at. Will is not like not eating dessert or something—that's just forcing yourself. You can't force yourself to be what you have made yourself into. You can love it. Love is endless. Will is finite." Todd Henry discovered his driving force through a powerful encounter. In 2000, he attended a work meeting where a guest posed the question: "What do you think is the most valuable land in the world?" After Todd offered typical answers like oil fields or gold mines, the guest shared wisdom from the late preacher Myles Munroe: "I believe the most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. Because in the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, all of the untaken risks, all of the unlaunched businesses, all of the unexecuted ideas, all of the unreconciled relationships—basically all of the stuff we carry with us our entire lives that we never put into the world." That day, Todd went home and wrote two words on an index card: "Die empty." This became his life philosophy: "Because I want to know when I reach the bookend of my life that I'm not taking my best work to the grave. That I'm doing everything I can each and every day to put that work into the world and be of value to others." Since that day, Todd has written five bestselling books, launched one of the first podcasts ever, and spoken worldwide to help creative leaders do their best work. The fuel that powers lasting excellence isn't external validation or material rewards, but a deep internal connection to meaningful work. Whether it's Thurman's call to "come alive," Seinfeld's "bottomless pool of energy" from love, or Henry's commitment to "die empty," excellence flows from finding what lights you up inside. This isn't about following passion blindly, but about discovering work that engages your full self and contributes something meaningful to others. When you find this alignment, the motivation to persist through challenges becomes natural rather than forced.

Chapter 5: The Power of Others: Learning and Growing Together

In 1939, Bill Hewlett and David Packard launched their partnership from Packard's garage in Palo Alto, California. After flipping a coin to decide whose name would come first, the Hewlett-Packard Company was born. Their first sale was to Walt Disney Company, which bought eight audio oscillators for use in producing the animated film Fantasia. As the company grew, Hewlett maintained modest habits, keeping the same simple office and practicing what Tom Peters would later call "MBWA"—Managing by Wandering Around. Even 30 years after launching HP, Hewlett's phone number remained listed in the local phone book. One day in 1967, a 12-year-old boy living in Palo Alto called the Hewlett home. The president of Hewlett-Packard answered himself. "Hi, I'm Steve Jobs. I'm 12 years old. I'm a student in high school, and I want to build a frequency counter. And I was wondering if you had any spare parts I could have." Hewlett not only gave Jobs the parts but offered him a summer job at HP. "I was in heaven," Jobs would later recall. This experience taught Jobs a lesson he never forgot: "Most people don't get those experiences because they never ask. I've never found anybody who didn't want to help me if I asked them for help." Ron Ullery, an assistant football coach at Centerville High School in 1982, faced a similar opportunity to ask for help. His head coach informed him that the following year he would be coaching the offensive line—a position Ullery had neither coached nor played before. Knowing he needed to educate himself quickly, Ullery decided to reach out to Jim McNally, the highly respected offensive line coach for the Cincinnati Bengals. Though Ullery expected his cold call to the Bengals offices would lead nowhere, a stroke of luck occurred when the receptionist recognized Ullery's school as the one attended by a child she had once babysat. She put McNally on the phone, who invited Ullery to meet in person. For four hours, the hobbled pro coach (recovering from surgery) demonstrated proper techniques, watched game film with Ullery, and shared the tiniest technical details of offensive line play. Years later, Ullery would call those four hours "the most beneficial learning experience I've had to help me in the coaching profession." Maria Konnikova, a bestselling author with a PhD in psychology, wanted to learn poker from the best. After researching the poker community, she identified Erik Seidel—an eight-time World Series of Poker champion with over $37.7 million in earnings—as her ideal coach. When asked how she convinced this elite player to mentor her, Konnikova shared several keys: do your homework before contacting someone, be specific with your ask, know why this person should help you, figure out what's in it for them, get to the point quickly, and never say "Can I pick your brain?" The pursuit of excellence is never a solo journey. Those who achieve greatness understand the power of learning from others—whether through formal mentorship, strategic questions, or simply being willing to ask for help. As Steve Jobs discovered at 12 years old, most people are willing to help if approached with genuine curiosity and respect. Excellence emerges not from isolated genius but from the courage to recognize what we don't know and the humility to learn from those who do. By building a network of transformational relationships rather than transactional ones, we create an ecosystem where knowledge flows freely and growth accelerates.

Chapter 6: Developing Confidence: From Imposter to Authority

Every Sunday morning, I go to a park near my home about 30 minutes prior to sunrise. My purpose is to move my body, and it happens in a very specific order: I run, sprint, and walk. I start with a roughly one-mile run around the loop of the park. Following that, I go onto the grassy field and run a series of 110-yard sprints. Finally, I finish by walking five miles around the neighborhoods near my home. One day, an older woman who regularly walked the park with her husband approached me and asked, "Why do you run before you walk? Are there health benefits to it?" Without thinking and still out of breath from the sprints, I said, "I just try to do the hard stuff first." This philosophy applies beyond physical exercise. Whether writing a book or tackling a challenging project, doing the most difficult part first creates momentum. Like sledding, the painful trudge uphill in snow boots while carrying your sled requires effort, but once you complete this hardest task, the rest becomes enjoyable—a downhill slide rather than an uphill climb. If you did these activities in reverse order, would you ever climb the hill at all? Tackling the hardest challenges first not only creates momentum but builds confidence in your ability to overcome difficulties. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg describes confidence as a muscle: "You learn to use it, or you learn not to. If you are afraid to speak up at a meeting, every time you force yourself to do it, you get better at it. If you're afraid to take your seat at the table, every time you take your seat at the table and you realize no one tells you to go get back to the back row, you learn to do it." Confidence grows through preparation, execution, experiencing high performance, and seeing positive results. Lin-Manuel Miranda demonstrated this confidence muscle when performing at the White House in 2009. Instead of playing it safe with a song from his Broadway hit "In the Heights," Miranda announced to the crowd, including President Obama, "I'm working on a concept album on the life of somebody that I believe embodies hip-hop: Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton." The room filled with uncertain laughter. Miranda then delivered what would become the opening song of "Hamilton," a musical that would later win 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Despite appearing supremely confident, Miranda later confessed: "If you want to see me at my most afraid, you can watch that video, because I know that Hamilton is a bad elevator pitch—like 'Rapping founders? What? No!' And I think the audience really thought it was a joke." He admitted scanning the room for escape routes "if this bombs in front of the president of the United States." Yet Miranda had prepared extensively and believed in his work enough to risk embarrassment on a national stage. Jack Butcher, a conceptual designer, learned a valuable lesson about confidence early in his career. When showing work-in-progress to a mentor, Jack prefaced it with: "This isn't as good as it should be. Can you take that into consideration before you look at it?" His mentor responded sharply: "Then why are you showing it to me? I don't want to see it. If you're going to lead with that, then why are you bringing it to me?" From this, Jack derived a simple maxim: "Never discount your work prior to showing it." Instead, he learned to ask himself: "What would the worst critic say about this work? How would I respond to that?" Confidence isn't about absence of fear but about taking action despite it. Whether it's Miranda performing an untested concept before the president or Butcher learning to stand behind his work, excellence requires the courage to put yourself forward without apology. By consistently stepping into challenging situations, preparing thoroughly, and refusing to discount your abilities, you develop the authentic confidence that transforms imposters into authorities. This confidence becomes self-reinforcing, creating a virtuous cycle of growth and achievement.

Chapter 7: Making Commitments: The Path to Meaningful Impact

Marshall Goldsmith, coach to some of the world's most impactful CEOs, asks a powerful question when considering making a commitment: "Am I willing, at this time, to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic?" This question guides how he chooses clients and structures his coaching relationships. Goldsmith charges $250,000 per year, but with a remarkable guarantee: if clients don't hit their key metrics and milestones, he returns the entire fee. "I bet on myself," he explains. "I don't get paid unless my coaching works." His willingness to fully commit drives his results and reputation. Liz Forkin Bohannon learned about commitment when she moved to Uganda in 2008 to learn about issues facing women and girls living in extreme poverty. There, she met young women who had qualified for college but couldn't afford to attend. In response, Liz designed sandals, set up manufacturing, and hired three young women preparing to graduate high school, promising them: if they made these sandals during the nine-month gap between high school and college, they would earn enough for tuition. Ten years later, her company Sseko Designs has enabled hundreds of female scholars to attend college and created jobs for thousands of women worldwide. Liz emphasizes that opportunities are fleeting, and we must overcome imposter syndrome to seize them when they appear. As Cinderella's mother says in Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods": "Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor, and good fortune, like bad, can befall when least expected." Anne Mulcahy demonstrated this principle when she became CEO of Xerox in 2001. The company was $17.1 billion in debt, losing stock value, and facing potential bankruptcy. When asked how she had risen through the ranks to this position, Anne replied: "I tried to make my minibus a sparkling pocket of greatness." Dave Chappelle, one of the world's best stand-up comics, regularly shows up unannounced at small comedy clubs near his Ohio home to workshop new material. Like many excellent comedians, Chappelle views himself as a continuous work in progress. Jerry Seinfeld, despite being at the pinnacle of his profession with a net worth approaching billions, still spends his days writing in a Manhattan office and then performs unannounced at random comedy clubs to test new material. "To a guy like me," Seinfeld explains, "a laugh is full of information. The time of it, the shape of it, the length of it—there's so much information in a laugh." Donald Miller, founder and CEO of StoryBrand, identifies three key differences that separate achievers of excellence. First, they see themselves as heroes rather than victims in their own life narratives. "The biggest transformation in my life happened when I stopped thinking of myself as a victim and started thinking of myself as the hero," Miller explains. Second, they obsess about being good investments for others: "Value-driven successful people are obsessed with getting others a strong return on the investment made in them." Third, they exhibit a clear bias toward action: "They don't let ideas die on the vine. They take action to make those ideas happen." Making meaningful commitments requires more than just good intentions—it demands a willingness to invest fully in what matters most. Whether it's Goldsmith betting on himself, Bohannon seizing a fleeting opportunity, Chappelle and Seinfeld continuously refining their craft, or Miller's focus on creating value for others, excellence emerges from wholehearted commitment to the work that matters. By viewing ourselves as active heroes rather than passive victims, focusing on creating value for others, and consistently taking action rather than merely talking about ideas, we transform commitments into meaningful impact that ripples far beyond ourselves.

Summary

The pursuit of excellence is not a destination but a lifelong journey of continuous improvement. As Jiro Ono, the world's greatest sushi chef, explains: "Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That is the secret to success." Even at 95 years old, Jiro maintains: "All I want to do is to make better sushi. I do the same thing over and over, improving it bit by bit. There is always a yearning to achieve more." This journey begins with adopting a growth mindset that views challenges as opportunities rather than threats. It requires the discipline to focus consistently on what matters most, even when no one is watching. It demands the courage to embrace resistance rather than avoid it, balancing unwavering faith in ultimate success with clear-eyed acceptance of present realities. The fuel for this journey comes not from external validation but from finding work that genuinely lights you up inside. Excellence is accelerated through the power of others—mentors, coaches, and peers who challenge and support your growth. It develops through building authentic confidence that allows you to step forward without apology. And ultimately, excellence manifests through making meaningful commitments that create value for others. As Theodore Roosevelt demonstrated throughout his remarkable life, excellence is available to anyone willing to embrace the challenging path of continuous improvement, one step at a time, with purpose, discipline, and an unwavering commitment to becoming better tomorrow than you are today.

About Author

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Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, consultant and founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping organizations become healthy. Lencioni’s ideas around leadership, teamwork and employee engagement have impacted organizations around the globe. His books have sold nearly three million copies worldwide.When Lencioni is not writing, he consults to CEOs and their executive teams, helping them to become more cohesive within the context of their business strategy. The widespread appeal of Lencioni’s leadership models have yielded a diverse base of clients, including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, the military, non-profits, universities and churches. In addition, Lencioni speaks to thousands of leaders each year at world class organizations and national conferences. He was recently cited in the Wall Street Journal as one of the most sought-after business speakers in the nation.Prior to founding his firm, he worked as a corporate executive for Sybase, Oracle and Bain & Company. He also served on the National Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America.

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