"Excellence is a not a skill. It's an attitude."

Excellence is not a skill. It's an attitude.

Countless people indeed have "excellent skills," but excellence is more than just the product of Talent and hard work. Excellence is also an inward state of being; it springs from the depths of our souls, and it's about how we feel about our abilities—regardless of how skilled we may be in specific domains.

In this blog post, I will share lessons learned from some fantastic people at companies like Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, and other organizations where exceptionalism is a core value. I will also teach you how to develop your excellence-centered mindset and, in the process, equip you with the psychological tools to become more confident, improve your relationships, and have more meaningful conversations with colleagues and friends.

Excellence is a mindset that must be cultivated over time through deliberate practice. But at its core lies a single truth: we are all born without innate Talent. We must rely on our abilities—our strengths—to achieve excellence throughout our lives. It's up to us to slay those dragons in our minds that hold us back from early success by developing our strengths, which will inevitably lead us to true success. It requires persistence, hard work, and the right attitude.

But first, let's take a closer look at what leads to excellence.

What Is the Underlying Cause of Excellence?

We can distinguish between two causes of excellence: innate aptitude and deliberate practice. In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell describes how many people who excel at something have achieved their level of success because they are blessed with an innate aptitude that sets them apart from others. Gladwell cites Bill Gates, who started programming computers when he was 12. He explains that today's well-paid software engineers are often born into families where computer equipment fills the dining room and children get to play with computers from an early age. Other people have excelled because of the circumstances they were born into, such as the types of schools that they attended or their parents' occupations.

In Gladwell's view, most of the world's great rock stars and athletes are also "outliers." They have achieved excellence because of a lucky combination of genetics and deliberate practice. Gladwell states: "Talent is overrated — I mean, look at what happened to Michael Jordan. Did he achieve anything by being 6-foot-6? Of course not — it was his hard work transformed his height into a competitive advantage in basketball."

Although Gladwell later acknowledges that some people are born with great aptitude, he still believes that the path to excellence is open to everyone. For example, in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell describes how many people who excel at something have achieved their level of success because they are blessed with an innate aptitude that sets them apart from others. Gladwell cites Bill Gates, who started programming computers when he was 12. He explains that today's well-paid software engineers are often born into families where computer equipment fills the dining room and children get to play with computers from an early age. Other people have excelled because of the circumstances they were born into, such as the types of schools that they attended or their parents' occupations.