Perfection or Excellence ?

Perfection or Excellence ?

J R D Tata once said that if you aim at perfection, you may achieve excellence. Did you note that he didn’t say you will? Rather, he said you may. It is important that you aim at perfection, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will achieve excellence. Excellence is something beyond perfection. Excellence, like goodness or beauty or love can only be felt. It cannot be quantified, it can only be appreciated.

Does that mean that excellence is beyond mortal means to achieve? Not so . We cannot be gods but we can hope and try to be god like. Man has to reach out beyond his capacity into the great and that is unknown to all and seek to find that which is hard to find. For the joy is not in the finding but in the searching, in the seeking and not in the achievement.
Achievement may come as a by-product and one must be ready to accept it. But, failure need not and should not deter us. For the essence of life is in the search of unkown and the hidden.

Too often perfection is measured in terms of success and in the materialistic world we live in, this is one of the pitfalls we have to be constantly aware of.

Perfection, of course, could lead to success in one’s chosen field but success is a very imperfect instrument to measure excellence.

When Edmund Hillary embraced his Sherpa colleague on the top of Mount Everest, he had attained success. When Mother Teresa won the Nobel Prize for peace, she had attained success- of sorts.

But what is more important to Mother Teresa; the winning of the Nobel Prize or the striving for bringing joy to the desperate and the dying? And was Mahatma Gandhi less ‘ successful’ because he didn’t win the Nobel Prize? Indeed, the history of the Nobel Prize is the story not of the successes of men and women who won it but of the many who did not but who, by their long, relentless and thankless efforts, made it possible for the few to do so.

Success often comes to those who dare and act; it seldom comes to the timid. What many, in the strong afterglow of success do not realise is that there is that quality of daring, of willingness to make the supreme sacrifice in all the successes and often it is the power of mind over the body. Success depends largely on toil. Endeavor is heaven. Whether it is in the field of industry, art, music, banking or even education, the only thing that pays in the long run is ceaseless work. John Ruskin once said,” If you want knowledge, you must toil for it, if food, you must toil for it and if pleasure, you must toil for it .Toil is the law ” And no perfection can be achieved without constant and single-minded toil.

Einstein said very rightly, ” Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration.” Geniuses are not born but made. And genius is the one who has the power of making continuous efforts.

Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa used to talk of the insect which fell into a bowl of buttermilk. It was a case of struggle or sink. The insect decided to struggle and thrash it out and before long found itself stranded on a small mound of butter, safe from drowning.

Ceaseless toil could lead to perfection which, indeed, should be the aim of all activity. Winston Churchill used to labour over his writings until he found the right phrase for the right thought. Picasso could produce an instant master-piece, but behind that flow of easy line surely lay hours and days and months of practice. We tend to take our geniuses for granted without realIsing that behind each work of art, each performance of music or dance lies hours of rigorous training. Whether it is Bade Ghulam
Ali Khan or Allaudin Khan or Ravi Shankar, their music is the end product of practice without end.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it, so fine that we are often on the line and do not konw it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time, when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in.
In business, sometimes prospects may seem darkest when actually they are on the turn . A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within.

So, if you really want to succeed in your chosen field, work harder, set your goals, strive for them; day and night, months and years and success will definitely be at your feet!