Those who perform love what they’re doing.
Those who perform love what they’re doing. I’m not saying they like everything they do. That’s something quite different. Everybody has to do a lot of the routine; there’s an enormous amount of the routine. Every great pianist has to do three hours of playing scales each day. And nobody will tell you they love it. You have to do it. It’s not fun, but you enjoy it because even after forty years you still feel the fingers improving. Pianists have a wonderful expression I heard many years ago: “I practice until I have my life in my fingers.” And, sure, it’s a dull routine, but you enjoy it.
The same is true of people I’ve seen in business who enjoy the work. Their routine is: It’s got to be done, and I enjoy it because I enjoy the work. And that is the difference, I believe, not between mediocrity and performing, but between what you call a “learning organization”—one where the whole organization grows and then the process changes—and an organization that maybe does very well but nobody misses it after five o’clock.
ACTION POINT: Practice until you have your life in your fingers.
“Meeting of the Minds,” Across the Board: The Conference Board Magazine
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker