Excellence: The Road To Success

Everyone wants to be successful, but not everyone is ready to pay the price of excellence. A lot of ink has been spilled on the topic of excellence with each person bringing forward his/her own opinions, but one self-evident truth about excellence that everyone attests to is the fact that success follows excellence. It is unfortunate that most people do the things they do for the money and not for the sake of doing outstanding work. Excellence comes at a price but it's always worth it in the end. These are 10 of my favorite quotes about excellence. I hope they stimulate the drive for excellence in you.

1. “You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only one who does what you do.”

- Jerry Garcia

2. “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well’”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

3. “I don’t know that there are any short cuts to doing a good job”

– Sandra Day O’Connor

4. “Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more”

– A. Lou Vickery

5. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better”

– Pat Riley

6. "Striving for excellence motivates you, striving for perfection is demoralizing"

– Harriet Braiker

7. "Every job is a self-portrait of who did it. Autograph your work with excellence"

–  Jessica Guidobono

8. "Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude"

– Ralph Marston

9. "Excellence can be attained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical and expect more than others think is possible"

– Unknown

10. "The price of excellence is discipline, the cost of mediocrity is disappointment"

– William Arthur Ward

Cover image via Comdev.osu.edu