00009: 5 Bites Newsletter - Excellence Often (actually, ALMOST Always) Creates Tension

As you know I’m reading the book by Michael Erath, the 5 obsessions of elite organizations and I’m loving it…in it he reminds us that Nick Saban once said: “Mediocre people don’t like high achievers, and high achievers don’t like mediocre people.” It’s blunt, but boy is it true. Excellence has a way of exposing the gap between those willing to push and those who settle. That gap always creates tension. It’s a reminder of something we explored in our issue 00005 “Know thyself” when I referred to a book my buddy, James Hall, recommended called Beyond High Performance by Jason Jaggard. High performers and achievers think, act, and live differently — and not everyone around them is comfortable with that. But here’s the thing: if you want to pursue excellence, you have to accept the friction that comes with it. Jesus even pointed to this reality when He said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)* *I learned about this one recently…and it initially was very unsettling…more about this later… Choosing a higher standard often divides — because you can’t cling to mediocrity while also stepping into excellence. You have to “leave and cleave” to a new path. – be sure to read the entirety of this in the footnote…and tell me if you think he was OK with tension!