Good- the Friend of Great

Greatness isn't a decision. Greatness comes as a result of making good decisions or producing good results over time.

You've probably heard the well-known quote from Jim Collins, "Good is the enemy of great." I completely get the point that Jim is driving at here when it comes to clarity and prioritization. But I also think good has been getting a bad rap for too long.

When we avoid good things in pursuit of great things we set ourselves up to be disappointed. The reality is you can't get to great without first being good. You simply can't skip steps along the way. Greatness is a process-and one that is never complete I might add.

If we believe that failure leads to success, then we must also agree that good will eventually lead to great.

The making of GREAT is a series of GOOD. I don't accept the logic: If you try hard enough, then you will become great. GREAT only happens when a series of GOOD things support you and your work.

Good is only the enemy of great when we settle for less than our full potential. We can't be good enough forever, but we should be comfortable with good enough now when we are intentionally, actively in the pursuit of great.

Here is what good has done for me:

1. Allowed me to launch. If I had waited until my ideas were great, I would never have started.
2. Allowed me to grow. If I only accepted great, then I never would have been able to produce something, learn from that experience, and get even better the next time.
3. Allowed me to fail. Perfection is a noble philosophical concept, but it isn't real-at least not this side of eternity. We must fail if we are going to get to great. But if we can't live in good, great things will be forever impossible.
4. Allowed me to be great (at times). Still the majority of things I'm working on our good things, it is the building on the good that will make great.

Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, suggests people who achieved EPIC things in their field did so after 10,000 hours of practice so to speak. His research confirms my point-you have to be good before you can be great.

With the long-term in mind, you can begin to understand why I believe that good-in context-is the friend of great.

How have good decisions and results prepared you for great things and results?

Guest blog from Justin Lathrop. With over a dozen years of local church ministry Justin has spent the last several years starting business' and ministries that partner with pastors and churches to advance the Kingdom. He is the founder of Helpstaff.me (now Vanderbloemen Search), Oaks School of Leadership, and MinistryCoach.tv all while staying involved in the local church. Justin is obsessed with connecting people to people and lives his life daily to make the world a smaller place. He now serves as a consultant in the area of strategic relations predominately working with the Assemblies of God, helping to build bridges with people and ministries to more effectively reach more people. He blogs regularly about what he has learned from making connection at www.justinlathrop.com.