Excellence: Just Be It
I interviewed one-on-one such dynamic achievers as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Burt Lancaster, and triathlete Paula Newby-Fraser in my broadcasting days. It would be easy to write in depth about them, but in this book you will find a great deal of content centered on “folks like you and me.” These are people that are committed and determined to reach excellence, but who aren’t famous. To be honest, I think we can relate to them better. Plus, you don’t have to be famous or a newsmaker to be a Peak Performer who is the very best at what you do.
The story of Darin Pritchet is an example. Chances are you’ve never heard of Darin, or will ever hear him on the radio. He’s not famous nationally, or regionally, or in his state. It doesn’t matter. He seeks excellence in all that he does. Darin hosts a nightly radio talk show known as “Weekday SportsBeat” on News Talk 960 radio in South Bend, IN. I tune in when I can, and am always impressed with the professionalism of the show. One time I was at a Retreat Center when a corporate businessman came up to me and said, “Charlie, I listen to that Darin Pritchet. I’ve listened to him for years. I have never heard him say ‘Uh’ or ‘Um’ or ‘you know’ or anything like that. Ever!”
“Really?” I answered, with a surprised look on my face. I had never really thought about it, but surely Darin had an ‘Uh’ in there once or twice! After all, he was on the air 90 minutes a night, 5 nights a week.
I called Darin and asked him about the “Uh” situation. “Well, Charlie,” he answered in a humble manner, “I don’t believe I have ever said “uh” on air. When I decided to go into this profession I made a commitment to speak the English language in a very professional manner. I decided that if I ever did have to pause for thought I would do just that — pause for thought. I studied people like Bob Costas and other high achievers that had excellent control of their speech.”
Ever since then I have listened to Darin, intently waiting for an ‘Uh.’ I’m still waiting.
THAT is excellence! He does it night in and night out on a fairly small radio station in northern Indiana. He doesn’t set a standard for excellence because he is on a national radio show. He does it because it is the thing to do, regardless of the magnitude of the show. Darin and his highly respected co host Rick Carter have a large sized, loyal audience in their area because their program is built on consistently being excellent.
Could Darin work for national radio audiences? Absolutely? Does he? No. His wife is from the South Bend area and that’s where he they want to raise their family.
Just be excellence (this slogan could be a cousin to the Nike slogan . . . ) wherever you are. The nationally known people aren’t always the best.
The absolute best TV Sportscaster I have seen in the last 30 years is not one of the famous network broadcasters. Not Bob Costas or Al Michaels are any of them. The best is a guy named Michael Rubenstein. Being a Mississippi native, I used to watch his nightly sportscast on WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi. It was excellence every night.
It was filled with the absolute latest sports news, investigative sports news, a feature of a local athlete, and crisp, intelligent writing. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, the cerebral Rubenstein brought in a huge audience to the station. From what I understood, stations in big markets offered him big bucks to come do the sports there, but he turned them down. He was a Mississippi boy from Booneville who loved his state.
His fire was stoked for producing and anchor sportscasts for WLBT for 16 years, and then a new fire was lit within him. Over a casual lunch of red beans and dreams, as he likes to say, he helped launch the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He has been the executive director of this shrine to greats like Walter Payton, Archie Manning and Jerry Rice. He cares deeply about their legacy. Rubenstein is leaving a legacy. Those things can happen when you care deeply to the third level, like the story of that preacher man in the movie theater lobby.
Peak Performers don’t settle. They don’t necessarily have to work unreal hours every day and live unbalanced lives, but they get to where they can’t do anything but get better day after day. They relish new challenges. Former Notre Dame Football coach Lou Holtz used to say, “If what you did yesterday seems important, you haven’t done anything today.”
That’s a good one. Of course, if you got married yesterday, you’d have a hard time topping that the next day! Peak Performers simply will not allow themselves to get caught up in the excellent work they constantly produce. They have an intangible that’s hard to put a finger on, but basically it’s like every time they do something, they’re doing it for the first time. Just because they did it great in the past doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to do it great the next time. They’re confident, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t take their performance for granted.
A few years ago I had delivered the Stoke the Fire Within keynote at the five year anniversary of a company. Ironically, a few days later another company brought me in to deliver an inspirational and entertainment program at their twenty year anniversary.
As I traveled to the second one I was focused and “on the balls of my feet” as I prepared for the show. I then said to myself, “Charlie, hey, you just did this program a few days ago. You know how to do it. You’ll do fine.” But it didn’t matter. Even though I had done the program recently, I still had to do it again. I did not take it lightly and would not let myself get into a comfort zone. Confident zone? Yes. Comfort zone. No.
One of my best suggestions for “being excellence” is to study those who exude everything that is excellence. As a Peak Performance expert (don’t ask my for an I.D. card proving I am such a thing . . . ) I study high achievers for a living. I have gained a great deal of insight by the programs I watch on television. People say television is awful and bad for us. Yes, it can be with so much garbage on it, but there is a tremendous amount of quality programming if you look for it. When I flip around at night I am looking for Biography shows and Interview shows. I want shows that probe into what got high achievers to where they wanted to be in life. I am often startled by their failures in life, and then inspired by their perseverance. The night before writing this I watched a Biography of comedian and actor Steve Martin. He said he was born with no noticeable gifts. The jest was that he worked his tail off to accomplish the things he has done in his career. I recently watched a Biography show on songwriter Paul Simon. He made the comment that even though his father worked a lot and wasn’t at home a lot, a comment he made impacted Paul’s life significantly. He was in his room singing when his father happened to hear him and walk in. He sincerely told his son that he was very good at it. That comment made a lasting impact. As a parent, that show improved me.
I do not watch prime time television on the networks. Period. It’s great if you do, but try to keep it to appointment viewing of no more than one or two a week. People that plop down and watch prime time network television for several hours before bed are hurting their Peak Performance possibilities in life. Instead, I have satellite, and I go to the Biography Channel and channels of that nature. There is great wisdom on many of them.
The only drawback is that they focus on famous Peak Performers that are household names. They should look into doing a one hour special on a young lady named Vanessa Pruzinsky that I once had the honor of covering as a broadcast journalist. She wasn’t known by millions, but what she accomplished certainly trumped many of the better known high achievers. I covered Notre Dame Athletics for sixteen years. The main reason I came to WSBT TV in South Bend in 1988 was that I wanted to cover true student-athletes that sought excellence in everything that they did. I found no shortage of that in covering Notre Dame athletes. When I am speaking to audiences, people often ask me who the most impressive athlete I have covered is. Without hesitation I say Vanessa Pruzinsky. They look at me like, “Who’s that?”
Vanessa carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average her entire time at Notre Dame in CHEMICAL ENGINEERING! How hard is that? She was only the third person in the University’s history to do that, and the first female ever. At the same time she was also a starter on the powerhouse soccer team. Vanessa was the Rookie of the Year in the Big East Conference in 1999. She was a key player on a team that was consistently ranked in the top five in the nation, and that has won 2 national championships in the past decade.
She achieved excellence as a student and as an athlete. Vanessa was committed and determined. She had one brutally tough class that led her to tears. The librarian would often have to wake her up at 2 in the morning so that she could go back to her room for some sleep. As an athlete she had to have ankle surgery one season, but came back to lead a defense that allowed just 5 goals in one 19 game stretch.
She was excellence. Not excellent, excellence. It was her state of being. She was as close to perfection as any high achiever I ever covered in my broadcasting career.
Vanessa’s perfect grade point average in a brutally challenging major is an inspiration because it is up there in the “perfect” range. While she was able to persevere, that can of pace can take its toll on many of us. As Peak Performers we have to be careful that we cut ourselves a break from time to time. I’m not talking about settling, but about understanding that seeking perfection can be damaging. As someone who has strived for Peak Performance, I have dealt with the Curse of Setting the Bar High: No matter how well you do at something, you tend to harp on the one area where you came up a little short. It’s that “perfectionist thing.”
Then I read a quote by Dr. Harriet Braiker: “Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.”
She’s on the mark there, I believe. Striving for perfection is noble and this world would be in a whole lot better shape if everyone was in tune with that, but striving for perfection can demoralize you. Seeking excellence, however, is motivating. I truly believe it can be a state of being. Peak Performers strive for excellence as a habit and way of life. They care deeply, as I wrote about earlier, and take it hard when things go wrong, but they keep moving on because excellence is their way of life. Be excellence.
Charlie Adams, Speaker
“Excellence is the gradual result of always trying to do better.”
Coach Pat Riley
