“What differentiates Excellence from Perfection?” was the inquisitive question posed by our senior one
day. As we floundered for words, she remarked jovially, “In excellence, you are perfect! In perfection, you aren’t excellent!”
We chuckled at the
witty paradox but as I pondered over later, the remark seemed to carry much
worth than meets the eye.
English Oxford’s
Dictionary defines Excellence as “the
state of being extremely good” and Perfection
as “extremely good, exact and accurate with no faults”. In daily usage, both
these words are used interchangeably and mean similar. One can say, “You are
excellent!” or “You are perfect” to mean the same. But do they really? Well, delving deeper behind the words would dig
out the difference and careful contemplation would clearly cut the two in
different connotations.
Renowned author
Thomas Greenspoon put it so excellently when he quipped: Excellence is openness to being wrong; Perfection is to be right. Excellence
is a journey; Perfection is a destination. Metaphorically, perfection is like climbing the mountain’s
peak. Excellence is climbing the same peak and looking forward to more peaks!
Let’s exemplify the traits: Mr. P has been
recently promoted to an elite position in a company. He adopts perfectionism in
his ways and wouldn’t allow even a fleck of fault in any work. Even one
innocent error is intolerant and could seriously jeopardize the committer’s
position. He perceives his methods as perfect and his arrogance wouldn’t allow
anyone to alter them. As days go by, his passion for perfection turns into
obsession, and gradually many workers resign on account of such rigidity and
red-tapism. Eventually, Mr. P, the perfectionist, too gets relegated to lower
ranks.
Replace Mr. P with
Mr. E, who, embraces the mantra of excellence and espouses the need for continuous
flexibility and improvement. For him, an error enlightens the path of progress
and pushes one to excel even more. People around him are at ease and are quite
open to discuss novel ideas and new methods. Thus, the company’s principle of
excellence paves the way for efficiency and effectiveness.
The above example
elucidates how Excellence, if truly
and earnestly espoused, can triumph over Perfection!
In excellence, there is room for improvement and progress unlike in perfection.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Perfection
is arriving at a place and thinking the journey is over; Excellence is arriving
at the same place but thinking the journey has just begun!
The above concepts
hold very well in every wake of life. To overcome a challenge successfully, the
concept of excellence and not
perfection should be adopted.
For professionals
like layers the oceanic restructuring of laws and regulations are new
challenges. For medical fraternity, the mighty challenges might be to triumph
over new diseases and viruses to make a fitter world to live in. Such challenges
in the ever-changing economy and society need to be confronted bravely and
wisely. Likewise, everyone has their own personal challenges to overcome.
Striving for excellence should be the
emphatic philosophy if we intend to excel in our respective arena. As a
conclusion, mark the famous saying by author Salvador Dali: Have no fear of perfection-you’ll never
reach it. Strive for excellence. Because, as aptly aforesaid, Excellence is a journey...
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