Excellence

An engineer who reported to me years ago, bristled at my insistence that we do things right the first time, because it saves time and money, not having to do it over again. We wanted excellence at our radio station. I wish I could remember the author of the book I read titled: "Excellence Doesn't Cost, It Pays". (I can ALMOST remember the name.)

The engineer wasn't opposed to doing things right, I think, but my insisting on it, "bugged" him. It bothered him so much, that he requested a face-to-face meeting in our basement to discuss it. After talking about it for awhile, the next thing he said floored me: "But Mike, are you human?" (I'm thinking, "What? Human? What does that have to do with it? Of COURSE I'm human......I think.) I gathered from that statement that HE felt I thought I was PERFECT - thereby NOT being human.

Actually, I was neither perfect, nor "un-human". I just thought we should TRY to do things right the first time. There are other humans that do this all the time. I think I convinced him that he didn't have to be perfect, but that he should strive for excellence.

Why bring this up now? Well, Blush, blush. Look at the box on this blog entitled "About Me". See anything "un-perfect" there? I didn't for a long time. Me, that has ALWAYS insisted that those reporting to me should check their work. Blush, blush. Another engineer formerly reporting to me just sent an e-mail telling me that the word "Station" was misspelled in that box. What? Me make a mistake? I say, "You mean it's NOT spelled 'Statiion'?" He said he wanted to "sharpen my iron". So, as a reminder to me, I'm NOT going to edit that. (11/23/08 I've since edited it, after this blog was "archived.") Thanks, Ken. (Ya wanta keep yer thoughts to yerself, Buddy?) Just kidding!

Romans 12:3 ........"not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but to think soberly."

Whew!