How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better (Harvard Business Review, June 2008, 123-127)
Until 1954, most people believed that a human being was incapable of running a mile in less than four minutes. But that very year, English miler Roger Bannister proved them wrong.
"Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt," Bannister is reported to have said afterward. "Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead." This goes to show that in sports, as in business, the main obstacle to achieving "the impossible" may be a self-limiting mind-set.
This article looks at how elite performers in sport and in business consistently and sustainably excel. The characteristics that enable this performance include:
- An insatiable demand for honest, immediate feedback; feedback must be constructive because stars do not engage in self-flagellation
- Using competition to push themselves to new limits
- Continually reinventing themselves, especially after they become the benchmark
- Celebrating success
hbr.harvardbusiness.org | By Professor Graham Jones | 2009-08-31
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