Challenge Yourself to be Great

I attribute the success of RLI to good decisions. There is an art to making good decisions — it’s called useful experience. Useful experience comes from making decisions — some bad. The way we progress is through trial and error. We make no progress if we are so fearful of defeat we are paralyzed. Without forward motion, nothing can be accomplished.

There are several tried and true keys to success. The list includes the following:

1. Dream. Visualize what it will be like when the project is complete or the goal achieved. Visualize all the steps and problems to overcome along the way. Be optimistic. Robert Oppenheimer said, "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist knows it." The key is to be positive when facing the reality of what could be.

2. Preparation. Make sure you have planned well to achieve your goal. Plan your work, then work your plan. Stay focused. You can do it better with a well-thought-out written plan. Then you can concentrate on the action.

3. Don’t put off the big things. Don’t neglect the small things. The key is balance. Allocate time for both.

4. Communicate effectively in a positive manner.

5. Team work comes before personal glory. This means you are expected to be on time, with your assignment complete. Do your part and then help others.

6. Improvement comes with repetition. Continuous improvement is the key to quality.

7. Develop and sustain a sense of personal integrity. If you aren’t trustworthy, if you don’t have integrity, you don’t have anything.

If you see a pattern of behavior you like, reward it. This applies to you and those around you.

Make a personal commitment to become the best at what you do. Learn what it takes to rise to new levels of respect and leadership. Challenge yourself to be great.