overlooked amid a packed schedule. But
they are critical. Creativity is what gets the
star billing, but it's hard work that brings
home the awards.
7. To acheive greatness, we
must keep getting better. All
the time.
Call it continuous growth, a drive for quality, self-improvement—the people who go
places, make positive waves and get the
world's great work done are always trying to
be better. When we do the same thing we
were doing last year or five years ago, we fall
steadily behind. Because while we're standing still, the rest of the world—whether an
organization or an individual—is getting
better. People around us are learning, practicing and developing new insights, which
means that if we want to achieve at a high
level—in anything—we'd better be getting
better too.
Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 4136
8. Success means getting better
problems.
Up until about a decade ago, I thought my
goal was to create a problem-free life. An
effective leader, I assumed, would pretty
much be able to get rid of all of an organization's issues. But one day I realized that was
both absurd and impossible. There were
always going to be problems—the question
was which problems I wanted to have.
Understanding this simple but natural
law of life has had an enormously positive
impact on me, and on many others. Rather
than fighting problems, this natural law
taught me to pursue them. Success, in a
sense, is about successfully getting the problems you've sought.
Accepting this natural law is hugely
freeing. Using this filter, I realized that
most of my problems were ones I'd chosen,
and frequently had worked hard to create.
For instance, at Zingerman's, we wanted
to have managing partners (real partners,
not just long-time managers) to have strong
leadership in the organization. The model
Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 4130
MAY/JUNE 2013
45