Succeed through Passion, Honesty and Pursuit of Excellence

Last Updated on February 8, 2008 by Jimson Lee

As a coach, I’ve always preached passion for the sport of Athletics (a.k.a. Track and Field), fair play & honesty (e.g. being drug free) and the pursuit of excellence.

As an athlete, I did exactly that: while staying drug-free, I nonetheless aspired to run in the Olympics, but I focused on internal competition: running my personal bests.

So when I read fellow Vancouver Blogger John Chow’s Blog on his video about Master Chef Gordon Ramsay, I said “hey, those points sounded familiar”.

It doesn’t matter if you are a Blogger, Master Chef, or Track athlete; when you can apply the core values of passion, honesty and the pursuit of excellence, you can succeed in anything! Passion is important because it gives you endurance in sports and elsewhere. Honesty is important because it allows you to sleep well at night; it helps you to develop a network of friends rather than enemies; and it makes you into a true leader, i.e. a role model for your industry.

Excellence about being your personal best. Set yourself up for excellence: focus on something you are passionate about and set a new goal. What is the biggest tip to achieving your goals? Write it down!. Just send yourself an email as “proof” and as a valid time stamp. You’ll be surprised when you revisit that email or letter next year.

According to a Harvard Business School study, written goals can translate into earnings of 10 times more than those who fail to establish goals or put their goals in writing. The study of their graduates from over 30 years or research found that only 3% who actually wrote down their goals. But those 3% were the most successful in the whole study! Of the remaining 97%, 11% had goals but had not written them down and 86% had not yet established goals.

Twenty years later, they polled the same group. The 11% group who had goals (but not written down) were making twice as much as the 86% group who had no goals. However, the 3% group who had written down their goals were making 10 times more than the average of all the other graduates… and 98% of all the wealth resided with that same 3%!

Get out that pen or email!