Why Your Best Is NOT Good Enough

My two favorite examples of how giving your best should not be the goal are: The Reality Distortion Field and the 4-Minute Mile.

My least favorite saying is “I gave my best.” To me, it is an unacceptable crutch; I don’t want to hear it. My personal feeling is this: when the goal is to accomplish greatness, go where no one or team has gone before—your best won’t be good enough. Your best is what you were capable of in the past. You have to figure it out, to try a thousand ways; if need be try another thousand ways, innovate, lose sleep, get around it, find loopholes, research, sweat like you never have before.

Every extraordinary accomplishment, invention, or revolution was not a result of someone giving his or her best. Somehow that person or group found a way to do what no one else could do; they did the impossible; they did what no one had ever done before.

The Reality Distortion Field

Back when Apple was just a startup, one of the first things new employees were taught, sometimes the hard way, was that their leader, Steve Jobs, “has a reality distortion field.” The reality distortion field enabled Jobs and Apple to inspire his team to change the course of computing history with a fraction of the resources of Xerox or IBM. “We did the impossible because we didn’t realize it was impossible,” said Andy Hertzfeld, one of Apple’s original computer developers.

“The reality distortion field was a combination of a charismatic rhetorical style, an indomitable will, and an eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand. Amazingly, the reality distortion field seemed to be effective even if you were acutely aware of it. We would often discuss potential techniques for grounding it … but after a while most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature,” Hertzfeld shared.

How Can You Create Your Own Reality Distortion Field?

Steve Jobs’ “reality distortion field” was a personal refusal to accept limitations that stood in the way of his ideas, to convince himself and anyone on his team that anything was in fact possible.

Each of us has the opportunity to create such a field. What we consider “possible” and “impossible” are merely the way we were preprogrammed and consensus thinking about artificial boundaries. What ideas and thoughts do you need to become unrealistic about?

The History of the 4-Minute Mile

For centuries man tried to find a way to break the 4-minute mile. Legend has it that they even had lions chase men to see if that helped them run faster. Unfortunately that did not end too well. By the early 1950’s all the medical experts had determined the human body was simply not capable of a 4-minute mile. It wasn’t just dangerous; it was impossible, the human body had reached its limit.

This changed on May 6, 1954. Roger Bannister made history and shocked the world when he broke the 4-minute barrier, running the distance in 3:59.04. The impossible was made possible. Could this feat ever happen again? Within 12 months, 24 more runners broke the 4-minute mark. What happened in that 12 months? Did the human anonymity change? No. The belief system of what people thought was possible had changed. This applies to every aspect of our lives.

How Are You Going To Change History?

A true purpose is a vision of how you will make the world a better place. A vision is a picture of a better world that your products or service makes possible. Captivating visions inspire people to become evangelists for the organization.

It’s not the great idea that works, it’s the great passion behind it. Every original idea initially results in snickers, quips, and laughing. That is why most are killed long before they can ever become great. If you have a great idea, put on a bulletproof vest and helmet and go after it.

Passion is the emotional fuel that drives your vision. It’s what you hold onto when your ideas are challenged and people turn you down, when you are rejected by “experts” and the people closest to you. It’s the fuel that keeps you going when there is no outside validation for your dream.

First, you need to believe in yourself. Don’t waiver. There will be people who don’t think like you do, don’t have your vision, who cannot comprehend being a visionary. I am more scared when everyone agrees with my ideas.

*Related – Episode #4 of The Customer Service Revolution – Alden Mills, a nationally recognized Navy SEAL turned entrepreneur