Escape From Excellence

We can get a good picture of the Excellence Trap by considering a story that a friend of mine recently shared. Like being trapped in excellence, it’s an experience that many of us will recognize. After spending five days bouncing around the country at 36,000 feet, touching down in various locations for sundry meetings, he approached the gate for his final flight of the week (his seventh), and quickly decided he had earned a bit of comfort. His ticket was in coach, and the flight was only a few hours long, but seeing the Friday afternoon crowd, feeling ragged, and very much looking forward to getting back to his nice new home, he got in line at the check-in desk, eventually reaching the gate attendant, and asked for an upgrade to first class, intending to redeem some frequent flyer miles. “I’m sorry,” the gate attendant said. “There are no first class seats available.” My friend was a bit taken aback, but quickly recovered. “Hey, wait a minute,” he said. “You don’t understand. I’m a member of the super-duper-constant-traveler-presidential-admiral’s club! This is one of my earned perks. Just look at my frequent flyer miles! So I’ll take my upgrade now please. Thanks.” “Very well, sir” replied the gate attendant. “There’s just one thing. Can you help me decide which of the other members of the super-duper-constant-traveler-presidential-admiral’s club now now waiting in the gate area, who have already checked in and upgraded, I should ask to be reassigned to coach?” My friend took his original seat.

Excellence is a lot like this. If you’re excellent, you’re a member of a club that is simultaneously elite and surprisingly crowded, and unless you look closely, these excellent folks all look sort of the same. After all, you’re not spending much time surrounded by mediocre performers. You’ve studied, achieved, and implemented what you knew would make you excel and succeed. And it did. So far, so good. But then, in the middle of living the excellent life, you look around and realize that a lot of other fine people received the same memo, that moving forward isn’t so easy, competitive advantage is harder and harder to come by, and big, sustainable, innovation and exponential growth start to seem like a memory, or a fantasy. It’s too bad but, like my excellent friend, reciting your credentials, kicking up a fuss, having to take no for an answer, lowering expectations, escaping into a nap, resigning to work during the flight in lieu of other options, putting on a stoic face, flashing the Rolex, or just demanding extra in-flight snacks all won’t cut it. You did all the right things your entire life, up to and including today, and now here you are stuffed into coach with a lot of excellent people in the same predicament. There has to be a better way. It was supposed to be better than this. And it can be: escape the Excellence Trap, change the game, and make the transition to Mastery. Mastery is like having that great seat waiting for you all the time. Either way, I hope this story helps you get a sense of how unacceptable and unworkable excellence can be.

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