Go the extra mile
We all have minimum, average or standard measures of performance or output expected from us. Many people target that expected level to keep going. However, if you observe, the people who are said to be lucky work far beyond the expected levels—be it the minimum, average or standard levels of performance or output. If you desire to be successful at anything that you do, you need to constantly exert more effort and generate far more output than what is ordinarily expected or demanded of you.
Last week, I met a young man who is a former classmate of my younger brother. He told me that he was recently hired for a temporal job under a six month long project. He explained to me how he is expected to meet a certain daily target for the output—just like his seven other colleagues. I told him candidly that the choice is his whether he wants to stop working at the end of the project in six months’ time, or to be granted an extension or indeed permanent employment at the end of the project.
He asked how he could get the extension or an offer for permanent job. I told him that the formula is easy but he would have to work so hard, constantly and with a great attitude to earn this rare opportunity. He needs to be the first one arriving at work ahead of the rest of his team and to be the last to leave office. His output needs to be not just the best but far best. I challenged him to produce around 50 percent more output than any of his colleagues and if possible double. This is doable. We have seen it happen many times where output from one employee equals output from two or three others combined. This is the challenge I gave to the young man in question. To go the extra mile so that the employer should be reluctant to release him when the project ends.
The same concept applies to pretty much to all of us. Even in sports, for example, we hear how most of the top players such as Ronaldo in football, Serena Williams in Tennis, Tiger Woods in Golf go the extra mile to be what they are. When they were growing up, they trained far more than their peers. Even today, most of these ultra successful sports men and women, go the extra mile. That is the only way they can really stand out and sustain top form at the highest levels of competition at global scale, where many of their competitors are equally talented and resourced.
The good news is that while we need to spend far more time than others in the beginning to be far ahead of them, we do not need to spend as much time later once we reach the level of total mastery. As time goes, your investment of time into what you do helps you become far more efficient. It is like you are building a momentum and once you reach some equilibrium, you can sustain some top speed or acceleration with just good enough effort. But it takes a lot of effort and time to reach that equilibrium. You need to consistently go the extra mile for a long time to reach that equilibrium level.
To practise this trick, you need quite an amount of independence. There will be the temptation to work just like everyone else. There will be the peer pressure pulling you backwards “kuti tifanane.” You need to solidly believe in your plan and stick to it no matter the pressure from your peers, no matter the temptation to be like everybody else. You cannot be outstandingly brilliant while you act and behave like an average person. You have to work, behave and think differently. You have to go the extra mile. Good luck as you rise and shine by going the extra mile always!
