Jeff 's Daily Excellence Pill

George Bernard Shaw, the famous Irish playwright, once said,


I first heard this quote a few years ago as I was faced with an absolutely uncertain life. I had reached a major crossroad in my life as I had to leave the very safe and well-paid confines of being a pilot to venture out to the real world. After serving as a military pilot for 26 years, I felt I didn't have the skills, I was too old to be a businessman, I didn't have the experience, etc, etc. My entire vocabulary consisted of I cannot, I don’t have, I don’t know…. It was all pretty negative.

Then I heard George Bernard Shaw's wonderful little quote, and I’d like to now say that it changed my life right there and then but unfortunately, that didn't happen so quickly. But what it did was to set my mind in motion to ask myself how good did I want to be in life, and even more importantly, how good did I dare be!

That theme has fascinated me ever since – how good do people dare to be? The Steve Jobs of the world, the Bill Gates of the world, even the David Beckhams of the world are those that choose not to follow the rules and do the safe thing. They dared to dream and they dared to follow their dream.

This idea emerged again last week when I met about 300+ fresh graduates and young adults with a few years of working experience. The gathering was for me to share my views on how they could attract me, as a business owner, to notice them in an overcrowded and saturated job market. I told them that while educational qualifications will get them noticed, passion would get them the job. A young lady was following my message very closely and agreed that passion and soft skills training was the way to go, especially in a city like Shanghai with over 6 million new graduates fighting for 5 million jobs. What really caught my attention was despite her agreeing with me on the need for passion, she ended with the words “But realistically speaking….”

I had to interrupt her immediately, and that’s not something I usually do! She went from passionate and filled with hope to completely deflated in a flash just by saying those awful words "but realistically speaking". Was David Beckham realistic when he signed a USD250million dollar contract to play soccer in the USA? Was Bill Gates realistic when he envisioned "a PC on every table" over 20 years ago? Was Steve Jobs realistic when he said "being fired from Apple was the best thing that happened to me". Were they being realistic or did they dare to be the best?

Psychology Today offers great advice on how to change. Check out their post Strategic Change for an interesting read. The biggest takeaway I got from that post was to "Take a Risk". Even if you're not a risk taker, take a few mini risks, remember the great adrenaline flow you felt as you thought about it and when you successfully did and, and then take more mini-risks again. With each little experiment, you’ll realize that it’s easy to change, it's fun to change, and most of all, you can change to be what you must be to enjoy your life to the fullest!

"How good do you dare to be?" The only answer is "The very best!" With this mindset, economic woes and financial crisis are nothing but a small blimp on your horizon.

Dream It Live It
Jeff Tan