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INBRIEF
THE PURSUIT
OF
EXCELLENCE
by
Stanley
R.
Rader
T
raveling with Herbert
W. Armstrong up to
300 days a year, 1
have been able to enjoy a
continua} education in the
kind of dedication, effort
and hard work that is
required to accomplish any–
thing worthwhile in life.
Mr. Armstrong is in his
89th year, yet he continues
to push himself, day after
day, to accomplish an
extraordinary amount of
work furthering the Great
Commission that God has
given him. 1 know personal–
ly that he maintains a work
schedule that would run
most men ragged.
Mr. Armstrong's extraord.i–
nary drive is a manifestation of
a law of success that he identi–
fied in the booklet
The Seven
Laws of Success .
Orive is the
fourth law of success, and Mr.
Armstrong, as well as other
successful executives with re–
sponsibility over large dynam–
ic organizations, employs it.
Orive means a constant prod
on oneself, never lagging or
letting down: it is the pursuit
of excellence.
And yet the pursuit of excel–
lence is rare enough in our
society that it now is common–
place to remark about a general
decline in quality. With the
exception of high technology
items, it seems that standards
are coming down. Achievement
tes t scores by high school
seniors have declined dramatical-
April 1981
ly in the last decade. College
administrators speak frequently
of "grade inflation." American
automakers have lost sales to
imports because of a reputation
for lower quality.
Of course, not al! standards
have declined, and examples of
great effort and achieyement can
be found scattered throughout
the world. It is to encourage the
pursuit of excellence, among
other reasons, that Mr. Arm–
strong organized the Ambassador
International Cultural Founda–
tion. The foundation helps bring
the
best
in the performing arts io
audiences throughout the world.
The foundation also pu blishes
Quest 81
magazine, whose mis–
sion it is to cal! society's attention
to individuals who demonstrate
sorne measure of excellence in
various spheres of life.
A society's attitude toward
quality reflects its general outlook.
As John Gardner in his book
Exce/lence
has written, "The tone
and fiber of our society depend
upon a pervasive and almost uni–
versal striving for good perfor–
mance."
lf
we tolerate "slovenly
indifference," the general tone–
the
quality~f
life must decline.
Whether it be in the mundane mat–
ter of goods and services or the
arts, the relaxation of standards
robs life of much of its sense of
achievement and dignity.
Perhaps our society isambivalent
about high quality and standards
· because, as Mr. Gardner points out,
such standards don't easily coexist
with "democratic" values. Excel–
lence is based on merit and individ–
ual effort; while everyone can strive
for excellence in at least sorne areas
of life, the fact remains that many
people don't.
Perhaps this is because excel–
lence is not natural in the sense
that it comes easily. Excellence is
the product of "artificial" human
effort geared toward sorne defi–
nite goal. Its pursuit means pur–
poseful, dynamic activity. As
such, the pursuit of excellence is
a uniquely human activity- ani–
mated by the spirit in man. It
consists, at least in part, in over–
coming our natural initial pulls
toward inactivity and laziness.
Another reason for society's
uneasiness with quality may go
deeper. We cannot really demand
performance according to high
standards ifwe believe that al! stan–
dards are relative. As our society
has forgotten God, it has forgotten
also that there is Someone who
sets
standards, which are fixed and
immutable. "For 1 am the Lord, 1
change not" (Malachi 3:6). To ask
that one meet high standards means
one must have a clear-cut idea of
what those standards are.
What most commentators on
excellence and quality omit is, to
borrow Mr. Armstrong's phrase,
the missing dimension on the sub–
ject. The pursuit of excellence
reflects man's ultimate destiny to
achieve the same leve! of existence
as God himself. As humans strive
for excellence in particular things,
so is God the embodiment of excel–
lence in all things. "O Lord our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in
all the earth! who hast set thy glory
above the heavens" (Psalm 8: l ).
The pursuit of excellence, then,
is astriving, in one part of reality, to
achieve a part of God's character,
who is himself "decked" with
majesty and excellency, glory and
beauty (seeJob40:lO).
lt seems that God built into
man a need to strive after high
standards, because the ultimate
purpose of man is to strive after
the highest standard of aii–
God's character. "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect"
(Matthew 5:48) . This glorious
pursuit is revealed in more detail
by Mr. Armstrong in his Everest
House book
The lncredible
Human Potential.
o
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