Be the Gold Standard
I am a sports fan. I love football particularly. Till date, I still relish my days as a football analyst and frequent pundit on television. I ate, drank and talked football… good memories.
I have a question though…
Whenever we think of football what readily comes to mind? Is it the stadia with their architectural masterpiece or the buzzing sound of the fans cheering their favourite teams to victory? More than these, I bet you can’t get over the thought of your favourite superstars, who grace the green grass and give you great sporting entertainment with their impressive footwork. For me, I can’t get over FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, widely regarded as the greatest footballer in the world. For others, it’s the Portuguese superstar, Christiano Ronaldo. Yet for some other football fans, it’s the legendary Pele of Brazil or Diego Maradona of Argentina. We love these players so much we get personal talking about them. Why so? It’s simply because of what they represent – They are the gold standards in the game. They represent Excellence.
It’s obvious the world celebrates gold standards. Whether it’s in sports, arts and entertainment, science and technology or even business administration, people who stand out from the park through the display of excellence are given accolades and respect.
But what really is excellence? Generally, it is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. In other words, it is being the standard in a particular domain, activity or industry.
More specifically, I’ll ask you, what does excellence mean to you?
For a student, it is definitely that perfect 5.0 Grade Point Average (GPA), while for a salesman, it’s the unmatched sale record like that of Joe Girard who is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Record as “World’s greatest salesperson” with the sale of 13,001 cars between 1963 and 1978. Joe sold an average of 6 cars per day. That’s outstanding!
Whatever field you find yourself, you can become a gold standard in that industry and you should aim for that. Though setting the standard does not come easy, let me share 3 tips that can set you on the path of excellence.
- A Winning Mindset
Excellence is a mindset, it begins from our thinking. Author and Educator, Charles R. Swindoll said “The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.” That’s so apt. the moment we take charge of our thought life, we are already on the way to living the life of excellence.
- Hard Work
King Solomon of ancient Israel, known for his wisdom once said “Work hard and become a leader.”a Hard work requires that you exert yourself and put in the required effort to achieve your goals. In school days, we knew the students who would emerge First-Class at graduation. We saw them from the first year, studying hard every day whether examinations were in sight or not. We were not surprised they came out excellent at the end. No doubt, excellence requires hard work.
- Dedication
To be the gold standard in any sphere of life, you must be willing to stay aggressively committed to the course. If you really believe in that idea, you’ve got to stick to it regardless of what life throws at you. Look at the great men we celebrate today, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Nelson Mandela, just to mention a few; they are not necessarily the most intelligent, or brightest, but they all have one thing in common. They stayed dedicated to their course no matter the odds against them.
In closing, it’s a guarantee that life will throw things at you, the road to living a value-adding life would not be a jolly ride but with the right mindset, hard work and unwavering dedication to your dreams, you are definitely on your path to excellence.
Always remember, You Have Only One Life to Live, MAKE IT COUNT!
Note:
a Proverbs 12:24 – New Living Translation
