Being Great

I find this to be a speech I give fairly frequently in one form or another, so I thought I'd post it:

What do you want to become? Are you here to make a comfortable living and live your life? Yea, there are quite of few of you aren't there? You know who you are. Most people, actually, are the type I just described. You want to do well, but you just want to be comfortable.

A great many of you probably think "pfft, that's not me. I'm destined for greatness." You think you are aggressive and ready to take the world by storm. You know what? I love it. That's exactly the attitude I want. It is, however, an unfortunate reality that a great many of you are wrong. You really fall into the former crowd, just looking to make a comfortable living. Now there's nothing wrong with that, most people are happier that way. In fact, most of you who think you're really destined for greatness would be miserable trying to be truly great.

I think of the following questions when I assess people for traits of greatness. Are you willing to put up your opinion even when everyone you work with thinks you're wrong? Are you going to push your project through, even if it's unapproved? Are you willing to be the least popular person just to prove you're right? Would you be happy being unpopular as long as you were right? If you answered yes to all of these, you're lying. If you answered no to most of these you're going to be comfortable. If you said yes to most but weren't sure about some, then you might have a chance to be great. Let me assure you, you won't be comfortable though.

Let's talk about greatness--let's talk about the people who really will be legend. These are the people who are willing to push a correct idea to it's limits. The types of people who will act on an idea if they know it to be right. You need to know that what you do matters. And every decision you make actually can resonate through the culture of the company no matter how small you think you might be. You have to be willing to take on the most senior of people if you believe your idea to be right. Those who are great face risks and take action. Taking action is what makes one great.

Yea, sometimes you'll be wrong. And you should feel like shit that you were wrong. Sometimes there'll be really shitty consequences too. You should feel like shit that you were wrong, but you still did something great. You should feel great that you did something great. You should feel like shit that you did something wrong. Don't be afraid to make mistakes because even mistakes can be a sign of greatness.

Any institution that is not willing to listen to voices of dissent will not survive, especially when those voices of dissent are correct and well formulated. Many institutions are like this. They ignore great ideas because they do not "follow protocol" or come from "senior management." These institutions will fail.

There is no such thing as a great institution. Every institution will fail without its people. It is the people who are great. Is is the leaders who inspire greatness. How do great leaders build lasting and reputable institutions? They do so by collecting people who are great. They collect those who have the conviction to act and the willingness to take risks on their beliefs. It is the conference room full of strong minded people ready to dissent about any topic they feel is incorrect that will come to the best conclusions and float the best ideas. Decisions should be built on debate, not on consensus.

So why are the majority of you not great? You are not great because you are afraid of the consequences. You would rather follow the route everyone else takes. Are you willing to step up and argue with your manager's manager? Are you willing to say "that's just dumb, I will not conform?" Most of you are not. You either wouldn't risk it, or you are uncomfortable with direct confrontation.

There's nothing wrong with taking the most accepted path. Thousands of very wealthy doctors, lawyers and bankers all did so with much success. No parent is every ashamed of their very comfortable son or daughter.

You know what, though? Those people are not great. They're comfortable.

You know who was great? Jack Welch, Reg Jones, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bill Allen, Henry Ford, A.P. Giannini. Not one of these people settled for "comfortable." They pushed the envelope, took a highly criticized path and rose to the top. Not one of these people was generally popular. Not one of these people took the typical path to the top. Not one of these people had many people who thought they would succeed. But they acted even when everyone thought they were wrong.

Yes, it's risky. Yes, it's unpopular. But you know what? It's greatness. They are legends.

Do you have the conviction to get there?