GO THE EXTRA MILE

PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS Series 31

GO THE EXTRA MILE

The idea of going the extra mile was made popular by Napoleon Hill when he defined it as “the rendering of more and better service than that for which one is paid, and giving it in a positive mental attitude.”

He explains that nature discourages the habit of trying to get something for nothing. He declares that no one attains enduring success without the application of this principle. If you therefore want to get more than an average person gets in life, go the extra mile; give more to get more.

Going the extra mile is a habit of doing more than expected, giving more than required, adding value to you, and then to your products.

The habit of doing more than expected develops your character. The whole of your personality is involved. As you give yourself to do more than you’re being paid, you’re actually building up yourself both morally and mentally. Nature has a way of compensating for such work, whether the one for whom you work adequately compensate you or not.

So then, do more than expected of you. Do it a little better than before. Do it better than others. Put in extra effort, extra beauty, extra color, and extra quality. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the extra.

Extra is also the difference between average and excellence.

Go for excellence. Excellence demands that you be better than yourself. Excellence demands that you do it better than you did it before. Excellence requires higher quality in leadership, performance and lifestyle.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit. You form a habit of something you repeatedly do. Always go for excellence. When you always do it, it will soon become your habit

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Excellence is more of persons than things. Excellence has to do more of your person than your product, who you are than what you do. Excellence begins in you, your thinking, your attitude. So we refer to people as “Your Excellency!”