If you want to perform your best or be the best, can you afford to just be good?
Effort vs Results
The image below is out of the book ‘How to Be Brilliant’ by Michael Heppell. The image explains the results you will get based on the effort you put in.
Poor = If you do a poor job you will get no results.
Good = If you do a good job you will get poor results.
Fantastic = If you do a fantastic job, you will get good results.
Brilliant = If you do a brilliant job, you will get brilliant results.
Heppell, M. (2014). How to Be Brilliant (4th ed.). Pearson.
Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.
Good vs Brilliant
Good is what people would expect as a minimum standard. It is very easy for anyone to be good. Brilliance requires going above and beyond what most people are willing to do. The highest performing athletes go above and beyond, taking care of the smallest details to set themselves apart from those doing a ‘fantastic’ or ‘good’ job.
Good: Turning up on time.
Brilliant: Turning up before time, completing your pre-performance routine, setup and prepare.
Good: Following the training programme your coach set you.
Brilliant: Going above and beyond to learn how else you could improve. Attending workshops & seminars, reading, researching, shadowing those better than you, taking online courses.
Good: Providing good customer service. Answering the phone & responding to emails in good time.
Brilliant: Providing exceptional value to your customers. Checking in regularly, sending personalised postcards (birthdays & thank yous), adding unexpected value beyond the product or service they paid for.
Doing a good job does not leave people amazed or walking away with the ‘wow factor‘ as doing a good job is what people expect. This is why doing a good job will get you poor results.
What are you doing to be brilliant?
I hope this post was of value to you. I’d love to hear your thoughts, please do send me a message on Instagram (simonjamescoaching).
Thank you for reading.
Simon James