Last week I attended a Startup Grind event with a highlighted fireside chat with W. Brett Wilson (thanks Work Nicer for the ticket!).
First I would like to say that I noticed people either love or hate Brett. I can see why, he can be brash (especially on Twitter). I would say that I fall into the middle. I agree with a lot of things that he says and disagree with others.
What I do like doing is listening to various people from different perspectives to attempt to form a viewpoint of my own. This isn’t always easy in today’s society. Remember, you get what you Google for.
Anyways, there was one thing that Brett said during his chat that resonated with me and I wanted to share. He was speaking around Olympic athletes and more specifically about Own the Podium and the now pressure we put on our athletes to get a medal.
This is what he said:
“The pursuit of excellence leads to medals. The pursuit of medals leads to failure.”
I think this statement holds true across all aspects of life, not just the olympics. If you’re in pursuit of a material object then you’re probably going to fail, even if you acquire it. If you on the other hand pursue excellence you’re going to win, if if you don’t have a medal.