What is Excellence?

Do you know what's excellence?

Simply this: To have (a) the character to be brutally honest with yourself about your present level of competence, the amount of effort you have put (or not) to get where you are, and the amount of effort you are putting now (or not) to get better + (b) the humility to respect, listen to and learn from those better than you + (c) the will and determination to put in the effort required to continuously improve yourself till the day you die.

That's it. That's excellence: Character + Humility + Determination.

And mediocrity is simply the absence of these three qualities.

Whenever you start excelling, getting really good at something, stay alert - because there are literally guardian angels watching over the mediocre. If you don't stay careful and keep your guard up, you will find yourself getting tripped and pushed back. You can count on this!

Look at the kid in the picture below. Look at the circumstances he finds himself in and how he is responding. That's excellence in action right there. Without even having met him, I can guarantee that he will break many barriers in his life. He will not make excuses, he will not be lazy, he will not waste his time with cheap jealousies, he will not pull others down to get ahead, he will simply keep pushing forward relentlessly.

That's excellence.