Becoming an Above-and-Beyonder

The simple quality of giving more than is required is a game changer in life. When you choose consistently to go above and beyond expectations placed on you, it will almost certainly bring success in school, in your job, in sports, and your relationships.

It sets you apart. It makes you special. It is a rare quality. There’s a term I use for people like that, above- and-beyonders. 

I learned to be an above-and- beyonder in my high school computer programming class. My favorite teacher of all times, Charlie Joe Allen, gave me a “B” on my very first program. It was perfect. I did the assignment exactly as he asked and even dressed it up in a folder with a cover sheet. I did not understand.

As I inquired about my grade, he explained that he never gave an “A” on any programming assignment unless a student went above and beyond what he asked. That class changed my life.

I was eating lunch at Chick-Fil-A recently, and the young man who took my order was exceptional. His name was Michael. I made a big deal about him and told his manager that Michael was manager material because he was an above-and beyonder.

His story made it into my new book on how to thrive in college. I made that young man’s day and he made mine.

Zig Ziglar must have had a teacher like Charlie Joe Allen somewhere in his past. Ziglar was an above-and-beyonder businessman. He had a different label for this quality in his work performance. He called it the “under-dog tactic”—the habit of always giving more than what was required of him to do a “good” job.

It is the way an underdog football team prepares to take on a challenge—they go above and beyond what normal practice, normal film study, or normal play calls hoping it will give them an edge in a game to overcome their natural deficit. Often, it does. It did with Zig Ziglar, too.

So, how about you? If I were a fly on the wall in your home, when you interact with your children, in your workplace, in the community that you live, would you be someone I would call out as an above-and-beyonder?

Who do you know that goes the extra mile every day without being asked and never gets a thank you because you just expect it of them? Call them out for it today!

Will you try, for just one day, to go above and beyond everything expected of you?