Being the Best vs. Being Consistently Chosen ™

© 2003 Garrison Wynn

Do you have the best service, product, or skills in your area, yet for some reason you still are not getting the results you know you deserve? Hey! I thought if you were the best, you were supposed to eventually win. Let’s address the reality of why your products, services, or leadership styles – or those of your competitors – are selected.

Think of the top-selling hamburgers in the world. Are they the best hamburgers? No! So why are they chosen?

Is that special sauce really special? No! It’s actually pretty gross! I’m not trying to criticize the fast food industry; it has combined two of the most desired things on the planet: Fast and Food.

Here’s an idea I’d like you to consider: There is no such thing as The Best! If the world agreed on what’s best, everybody would choose the best and nothing else would even be considered. Decision-making doesn’t work that way! “People don’t necessarily choose what’s best… they choose what they are the most comfortable with whether it’s the best or not.”

People will choose what they feel is the best. That’s right, I used the F word: feel! People will buy into anything that they feel will serve them best. In business, that means people. People don’t buy from companies or hire and promote a discrete skill set. People buy from people and they hire and promote people. So what is it that everybody really wants?

Best practices tend to focus on the method, the tactics, and the knowledge. I want to make it very clear that we should be as good as we possibly can at what we do and get all the skills training we can get our hands on. It’s just that skill and knowledge are not enough in today’s world. Being sharp and good at what you do is just the price of admission. If you think that your boss is not very smart, remember, that he is just smart enough to be your boss.

Everybody wants the same three things; Love, Money and Prestige. They want to be cared about, have some security and to be acknowledged as someone among there fellows. So you have to ask yourself three questions: