So, Angela Duckworth over at University of Pennsylvania has written a great book. I encourage you to read it. It’s called Grit. And one of the terms she uses is from a lot of the researchers who understand exceptional performance.
And the word they use is mundanity and mundanity simply speaks to the phenomenon that genius is less about these genetics and natural talent. Genius is much more about what you do every single day, those mundane things that seem like they’re not important. The little improvements in your work, the little running of your daily habits.
I’ve taught this for 20 years. And the brain tattoo I’ve taught for 20 years, I wrote about it in the Leader Who Had No Title. I wrote about it in The Greatness Guide is this: small, daily improvements when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results. I’ll repeat it again, because it’s so important. Small, daily seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results.
It’s not what you do once a year that’s important. It’s what you do every day that will take you to world-class leadership and iconic production. So, I guess what I’m saying is Apple, Amazon, General Electric, Nike, Under Armour, Whole Foods, Starbucks, SoulCycle. What makes the
great enterprises great is not what they do one sunny Friday afternoon that blew open the doors of world-class.
What makes great companies great, great athletes great, great artists great, great writers great, great humanitarians great, great leaders great, is mundanity. It’s the little rituals and routines that you do every single day, that over time create a tsunami of world-class.