One of the greatest business books I believe ever written in the last 10 years is Jim Collins' best seller, "Good to Great." In this book, Jim describes "good as the enemy of great." He believes we don't have great schools because we have good schools; we don't have great businesses because we have good businesses.
 
I would suggest this applies to our lives as well. We don't have great lives because we have good lives. We have just enough but not enough. We fall into that dreaded comfort trap.
 
I have had the great privilege of knowing both the "good" and the "great" over the past 20 years, and in my opinion there are indeed clear and distinct differences between the two.
 
Here are my Top 10 differences between "the Good" and "the Great."

                                                               Hmmm……..Which one are you?

 

  1. The great make a mistake and say, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake," Then they fix it. The good make a mistake and say, "It wasn't my fault" then proceed to make the same mistake again.

 

  1. The great say, "We can do this better" while the good often say, "This is the way it's always been done."

 

  1. The great tell us what they are going to and get to work to get it done. The good spend the first half of their life telling us what they are going to do and the second half explaining why they didn't do it.

 

  1. The great say, "I'm doing okay but I can do better." The good say, "I'm doing better than many others."

 

  1. The great respect, admire and want to learn from those who are doing better. The good are jealous of those who are doing better leaving no space for learning and growth.

 

 

  1. The great would rather be respected and admired than liked, although they would like to have both. The good would rather be liked than respected and admired.

 

  1. The great, when faced with adversity, always get better. The good, when faced with adversity, usually get bitter and ask, why me?

 

  1. The great are focused on solutions. The good are focused on the problems.

 

  1. The great are striving to get the most from their day when the good are just trying to get through the day.

 

  1. The great are always trying to get on with it while the good are always trying to get away with it.

 

Closing take-away nuggets:
 
Our personal philosophy is based on the way we think.

 

Sow a thought, reap an action
Sow an action, reap a habit
Sow a habit, reap a character
Sow a character, reap a destiny

 

                            - Samuel Smiles

 

All significant breakthroughs were breaks with the old ways of thinking."
                                                      - Thomas Kuhn