Give your best

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius --- and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
--Albert Einstein

In the classic western movie "High Noon", Gary Cooper played the role of Kane, a lawman who had brought peace and order to his town. After years of service, he decided to get married, take off his badge, and leave town. Minutes after his wedding ceremony, he received word that a gunman whom he had arrested years earlier had been let out of prison and would be arriving in town in less than two hours. His cronies were waiting at the train station to join forces and walk down Main Street to kill "Kane".

Kane decided to stay and fight, even after the other men of the town refused to join him. He put his badge back on and faced the gunmen alone. He had given the townspeople his best for many years, and now, in his time of need, they left him to be gunned down...alone.

It is hard to judge what will happen when you give your best. You will probably be supported and appreciated. But giving your best may also result in a backlash of jealousy and rivalry. You may be accused of selfish ulterior motives; you may win false friends and true enemies; you may be shot down by small men and women with small minds; you may witness the destruction of what you spent years building; you may be attacked by those you are helping; you may be left to fight the good fight alone.

Think about it. What kind of person doesn't give his or her best? Why would anyone want to deliver a second-rate performance?

Certainly tact, strategy, and timing are important. You can look for the right opportunities, or create the right opportunities, to give your best. But even as you work to improve your skills so that you can do better in the future, there is always something that you can be doing that represents your best right now. Giving your best is not something you do later, it's something you do every day. You are already unique. You already have something to offer.

The cost of giving your best can be high. The only thing that costs more is not giving your best. If you aren't giving your best, you aren't who you are supposed to be. Never forget that you are unique. You are genetically unique, and you are unique in your combination of talent and experience. That means you have something special to contribute...you make that contribution by giving the world your best. If you're not giving the world your best, what world are you saving it for?