Editor’s note: This column was included in the April 4 edition of The Pulse, a weekly BankBeat email newsletter sent to subscribers.
“Resistance is the catalyst to greatness.”
I have been thinking a lot about that statement, shared by Lt. Col. Dan Rooney during the first general session at ICBA Live a couple of weeks ago.
Jim Collins, the author of “Good to Great,” famously wrote “Good is the enemy of great.” We all get what he means. “Good” often means “good enough.” We tend not to try as hard once we get comfortable. But good comes with opportunity cost, which is greatness.
I also keep in mind G.K. Chesterton’s famous line: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” He is not giving anyone permission to perform badly; he is saying that even if you can only do a poor job at something, you should still try if you think it is worth doing at all. So if you need to write a letter to an estranged relative but you think you are a bad writer, send the letter anyway. If the relationship is worth pursuing, write the letter even if writing is not your strength.
Rooney helped me better understand the advice from Collins and Chesterton, who are both writing about the importance of effort. According to Collins, “good” often leads to diminished effort; Chesterton advocates courage, essentially saying: “try, even if you are not very good at it.”
Rooney uses the word “resistance” to summarize the various forms of effort. Rooney, who delivered a powerful message of encouragement before more than 1,000 bankers, is an F-16 fighter pilot and professional golfer who started a charity for military families called Folds of Honor. Explaining that an airplane takes off into the wind, Rooney commented that we have to have resistance to ascend. “Courage and comfort don’t go together,” he said, noting that many times in life we have to “go before we are completely ready.”
Rooney is acknowledging the fact that if you wait until you are completely ready, you are unlikely to ever go; it’s an amplification of Chesterton’s quote. If you don’t do something until you are good at it, you are unlikely to ever do it. Collins acknowledges that people rarely advance beyond good because few people actually ever feel ready for greatness.
What resistance are you running into at your bank, or in your personal life? Is it stopping you, or are you moving forward? You will never know what’s ahead if you stay where you are. I think you have to try. Resistance might be what you need to lift you to new heights.
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Let me share that, personally, I think we are all called to greatness. Rooney commented: “You don’t have to be more than you are, but you must be all that you are.” So, I think we agree.