Your BEST work NOW!
President Jimmy Carter tells the story of his interview with Admiral Rickover.
Rickover's technique for interviewing prospective commanding officers was brutal. Along with the expected detailed examination of your qualifications he had you sit in a chair that had the front legs sawed off just enough to make you slide forward and remain very uncomfortable during the interview. President Jimmy Carter once wrote about his interview with Rickover when he was still a young junior officer. Rickover asked him about his class standing when he graduated from the Naval Academy. Carter told the Admiral that he had graduated fifty ninth out of one hundred and twenty graduates in 1946.
Rickover then asked him, "Why did you not graduated number one?."
Carter thought about it for a little while and replied that he supposed he had "just not tried hard enough."
Rickover asked. "Why not?"
Carter was speechless. He could not come up with a sensible answer to this logical question. A young kid from Plains, Georgia was given the opportunity to go to the Naval Academy, no doubt the biggest opportunity of his life up until that time and once there he did not give it his best effort! Carter didn't know what to say next, but he made a decision that would change his life forever. Never again would he shirk a great opportunity. Many years later President Carter wrote a book titled, "Why not the best?" I bet you can guess how he came up with that title.
When are you going to start doing your best work? This year upon viewing Michelangelo's great works of art and architecture...you get the impression that everything he did was great. Everything he put his hand to was a masterpiece.
What is stopping you from doing "Your best work now?"
Make a commitment to putting your signature on everything. Everything is a masterpiece. This must be a little of what it means to be "made in the image of God"...everything He touches is a masterpiece...so it should be with his children.
Rickover's technique for interviewing prospective commanding officers was brutal. Along with the expected detailed examination of your qualifications he had you sit in a chair that had the front legs sawed off just enough to make you slide forward and remain very uncomfortable during the interview. President Jimmy Carter once wrote about his interview with Rickover when he was still a young junior officer. Rickover asked him about his class standing when he graduated from the Naval Academy. Carter told the Admiral that he had graduated fifty ninth out of one hundred and twenty graduates in 1946.
Rickover then asked him, "Why did you not graduated number one?."
Carter thought about it for a little while and replied that he supposed he had "just not tried hard enough."
Rickover asked. "Why not?"
Carter was speechless. He could not come up with a sensible answer to this logical question. A young kid from Plains, Georgia was given the opportunity to go to the Naval Academy, no doubt the biggest opportunity of his life up until that time and once there he did not give it his best effort! Carter didn't know what to say next, but he made a decision that would change his life forever. Never again would he shirk a great opportunity. Many years later President Carter wrote a book titled, "Why not the best?" I bet you can guess how he came up with that title.
When are you going to start doing your best work? This year upon viewing Michelangelo's great works of art and architecture...you get the impression that everything he did was great. Everything he put his hand to was a masterpiece.
What is stopping you from doing "Your best work now?"
Make a commitment to putting your signature on everything. Everything is a masterpiece. This must be a little of what it means to be "made in the image of God"...everything He touches is a masterpiece...so it should be with his children.
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