On achievement...

Exactly a year ago, my daughter (now 10 years old) mentioned to me that next year she wants to win the Dux Award for Academic Excellence in her school. This award is given to only one child in year 6.

As she had just won an award for Spanish, I said: "Aim high... I know you can do it. But be aware that it is not 100% in your hands."

That summer we sat down, we talked, and she made a plan and a commitment. She decided to give her absolute best in every subject, go above and beyond in all non-curricular work, and really aim to win the award.

I know, many people in today's world could not care less about awards. I actually love them. I love awards in the world of sports, I love awards in the fields of art, I love awards in academia e.g. the Nobel Prize, and I love awards in the world of business e.g. the Thinkers50 list.

What I love about awards is the acknowledgement of someone having done their absolute best for a long a period of time. It's not the award per se, that is fascinating, it is the process that people go through to achieve those awards.

So when my daughter decided to aim for that particular award, I was of course very supportive... not for me, but for her.

The past 12 months, she really went above and beyond in every subject. She studied hard, when some other kids were playing outside. She stayed up longer than probably needed for studying. She redid most of her math exams to make sure she scores 100%. And she wrote multiple drafts for every German/English assignment and refined based on feedback from my wife and me.

Yesterday, I sat down with her... I listed all the achievements she had received this year: the Stars of the Week, the flawless maths exams, and scoring within the top 1% of students globally within her year group.

Then I told her, it does not matter whether you win the award tomorrow or not... you have gone through the process, you have learned academically, and more importantly, you have learned what you are capable of doing. If you win the award, great... that will be the icing on the cake. But if not, your mom and I are extremely proud of how you have pushed yourself for such a long period of time.

Today... she actually won the award. Both my wife and I were sitting there, we were more joyful than for each of our own achievements because we were happy for her... we knew how much this meant to her. My parents were there as well, and they were full of joy seeing their grandkid succeed based on all the work they had done in the past 40+ years.

While I was sitting there, applauding my daughter and many other kids who had shown tremendous dedication and effort in various subjects, I thought of the people I get to teach, coach, and mentor. I thought of our society, in which - unfortunately - it seems to not be en vogue to set high standards and ambitions.

I get that balancing work and the rest of our lives is important... life is not only work. As a father of three kids and as a medical doctor, I know that.

But everyday we live is a day to aim for something and work towards it. Everyday is an opportunity to achieve something, to make something better.

I do not mean to be greedy about money... what I have in mind is mastery in whatever craft we have chosen for ourselves. What I mean is the willingness to constantly move into new fields and challenge ourselves. What I mean is achieving things.

Achieving that mastery takes a whole lot of dedication. It takes time which means we have to value the achievement of mastery higher than other things as time is limited. Achieving that mastery takes a lot of hard work - especially it takes a lot of reflection and painful acknowledgement that we can do so much better.

I have set goals for myself ever since I was a kid... Based on those goals, I made plans. Based on those plans, I executed. Based on the results, I inspected and adapted.

During school and university, I changed how I learn, I changed who I learn with, I changed where I learn... At work, I changed what I work on, I changed who I work with, etc.

Setting ambitions goals, putting the work in to get there, and inspecting/adapting along the way has served me well. This is also the approach I teach people for product development. I am glad that my daughter picked this up and is successfully applying the method which I learned from my parents.

Looking at our world, we need more people to set ambitious goals, more people who are willing to work hard to achieve their goals, and more people who reflect on how they can achieve their goals better.

Unfortunately, many people believe that we should be less ambitious, less competitive, and less hard working... I do not believe that mindset will help us tackle all the challenges that we have in front of us as societies across the globe.

I am deeply inspired whenever I see an athlete perform at their absolute best. I am inspired when I watch a great actor in action. I am inspired by a great piece of art. I am inspired about advances in sciences. Today, I am inspired by my daughter. #FromNothingComesNothing

PS: Sorry if this came across as bragging... that was not the intention. I was and still am so overwhelmed with pride and joy, that I had to share it.