Excellence is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.
“Excellence” is a very broad term which we hear a lot nowadays. The over use of it makes me think if people know what it actually mean. Excellence is striving for quality in all that we do to take pride in our accomplishments. This doesn’t mean being perfect, it means using our abilities and opportunities to their fullest. It’s the commitment!
Excellence is when you do the right thing, even when you think no one is watching, and no matter how it will impact you in the short-term. When you are a person of excellence, word travels fast, and you become indispensable in your organization & life. Your reputation will travel with you throughout your life so make sure you develop a reputation worth having.
A water bearer had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot always arrived only half full.
For two years this went on daily, with the water bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, fulfilled in the design for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was unable to accomplish what it had been made to do.
After two years of enduring this bitter shame, the contrite cracked pot spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream, “I am ashamed of myself and I apologize to you.”
“Why are you feeling so guilty, so penitent, so repentant …?” the water bearer asked the sad cracked pot, “Tell me, what are you so ashamed of…?”
“I feel sorry that for these past two years I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do extra work and you don’t get full value from your efforts,” the pot said full of remorse.
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and was consoled somewhat.
But at the end of the trail, the cracked pot still felt remorse, shame and a feeling of guilt because it had leaked out half its water load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the cracked pot, “Did you not notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, and not on the other pot’s side…? That is because I have always known about your flaw and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we’ve walked back from the stream, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty, these lovely flowers, to grace his house.”
The moral of this story is that everyone is a winner in his or her own way. Each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots. The most important thing is that we must look for the winner within us and strive for excellence. Always remember, it never goes unnoticed, and it is always eventually rewarded.
P.S: Pursue mastery & always strive to be your best (That’s EXCELLENCE)