33. The Law of Excellence

The Laws of Business Success

Under the Laws of Business

The market pays excellent returns and rewards for excellent performance, excellent
products, and excellent services.

Customers want the very most for the very least. They prefer higher quality over lower quality because higher quality promises greater satisfaction and fewer problems after purchasing. Companies with high quality ratings can charge more and earn more per sale. A commitment to product or service excellence is the safest and most predictable strategy for achieving business success.

The first corollary of the Law of Excellence is
The market pays average rewards for average performance and below-average rewards for below-average performance.

The market is a just taskmaster. It is always fair. It is always equitable. The market always reflects the real valuations of the customer as they are expressed in buying behavior. It always rewards those who serve it with the goods and services it wants at prices it is willing to pay, and it always punishes those companies who refuse to do so by simply declining to buy their offerings.

The key to your earning excellent rewards in your work is for you to become excellent at doing the most important parts of your job as they are defined by your boss and your customers. The key to success in your business is for you to develop a reputation for excellence in everything you do.

How you can apply this law immediately:

1. Commit to excellence in your work, especially in your key result areas and your core competencies. Resolve today to join the top 10 percent in your field, whatever it is you do. This commitment to top performance will do more to move you into the fast lane in your career than any other decision you can make.

2. Develop a reputation for being the kind of person who is always looking for ways to do things better and faster. Volunteer for assignments and then do them fast. Speed is a key component of excellence, particularly as it is perceived by customers. And the customer is always right.

Source: Brian Tracy, The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, (San Francisco, 2000).