Becoming Best in the World

Continuing with the themes and lessons of Good to Great by Jim Collins, once you have found your passion, which is no easy task and is an iterative process you will come back to over and over to refine, you must take that passion and turn it into something great.

Being Best in the World:
All of the Great companies discovered that to win in their markets they had to decide to be the very best in the world at what they did.

There is no way to become best in the world at anything if you are not truly passionate about doing it every day. You can force yourself to be good, but eventually you will become too bored or tired of the subject to keep yourself beyond the cutting edge, as the best must be. One must find that place where you have deep burning passion and determine that it is an area in which you can become great.

We have one of the best intellectual property damages experts in the country in Wayne Hoeberlein. It took him years to find this passion. He did boring accounting work, did some expert work in divorces and contract disputes. Then one day he did an IP case. The light went on. He found what he loved and focused on becoming best in the world. He now does this exclusively and serves in cases involving the biggest companies in the world every day.

Everyone migrates away from things that do not engross them to those things that do. So step one is always to find what you love to do. What you are passionate about.

Face the Brutal Facts:
Of course one cannot be best in the world at anything, not even in an area about which they are not truly passionate. One has to “face the brutal facts” about who they are and how they are going to become Best in the World at the thing they are most passionate about.

For example, Kimberly Clark, long one of the world’s largest paper manufactures decided that even if they were passionate about paper, the brutal facts were that there was no way for them to be best in the world at producing this commodity product. So they built on their passion for paper products by deciding to be best in the world at paper distribution systems.

They took the dramatic step of selling all of their paper mills and got completely out of the paper manufacturing business. They channeled all of their efforts into reinventing paper dispensing systems. Those big roll toilet paper dispensers reduced the amount of times the rolls had to be changed. The dispensers with a second roll above the first so that again the rolls did not have to be changed as often. Creative new ideas based on their passion for paper but in an area where they could actually become best in the world. They followed their passion and are best in the world in that category and during the 15 years they were studied outperformed the market by over 15:1.

One of our professionals has a passion for scuba diving. Can she translate that passion into something within UHY FLVS at which she can be best in the world?

Is there a financial component to environmental law?
Calculating damages associated with pollution that destroys a delicate reef system?
Do companies involved in marine work require audits, tax work, etc.?
Are they international and do they perhaps pay bribes to foreign governments, perhaps to fish in certain waters or bring in catches above limits?

Is her passion for scuba diving about something else entirely?
Perhaps risk taking?
Are there opportunities to get that thrill in an area within our company?
Perhaps calm get-away beauty?
Is there an area in our company that is low-risk, low-pressure where she can be happiest and become best in the world?

What else? Go through the questions and discover the real passion. What is it about what you love to do that makes it something you love to do?
Perhaps, God forbid, she has to sell all of her “paper mills” here at UHY and go after becoming the best scuba diver in the world, or buy a shack on the beach and sell scuba gear and teach.

Brutal facts are important. I may love sprinting (I don't but go with me here), but I am old and fat and there is no way I can ever be best in any world in sprinting. So, that is not a career option for me. I have to figure out what else I am passionate about.

How about writing? I could start a blog or lead thought and help our experts write articles?
How about helping young professionals develop their careers and become happy in their work? Hmmmm.

Take you passion and think about whether (not "how" yet) you can be Best in Your Defined World at something that will drive your passion.

Face the brutal facts and build your future.