Being Authentically Great: It Is A Matter of Life or Death

If you are authentically great at something, people will put up with a lot of your personal quirks…

if  you solve their pain.

If you are the worlds greatest brain surgeon and I have a brain tumor, I could care less what you look like, smell like or sound like…

I want you cutting my head open and fixing my brain.

If you are the worlds best forensic accountant and I am a major shareholder who feels like someone is stealing my company away from me…

I want you examining my books.

And in cases like these, I could care less about how much you cost.

It is literally (and figuratively) a matter of life and death.

So if you are slightly quirky and do things like wear shorts everywhere, say crazy stuff and generally march to the beat of your own drum…

You had better be great at something that someone considers a matter of life and death.

Either in the human element or the business element.

Otherwise, chances are that you are dressing up for work M-F and playing cubicle army soldier hoping that payroll clears next week because your company didn’t go broke.

And if you are not great at something?

Spend 10,000 hours doing what you love and get to be world class at whatever you love.

And when the time comes when someone needs brain surgery or their entire business rides on your abilities and you happen to be the best in the world at solving their pain…

They won’t ask why you smell like garlic and don’t tuck your shirt into your shorts.