Who Likes the Status Quo? Not Those Seeking Excellence!

by Vince Kellen

"If you don't like change, you are going to like irrelevancy even less."

I love this Tom Peters' quote. It neatly summarizes the central challenge for individuals and organizations today. But I like to flip the focus from the people loathing change to what kind of people loathe the status quo. From time to time, I keep running into certain types of people who I can best describe as those passionately seeking another level of performance. These are people who absolutely do not like the status quo. It makes them wince and conjures up negative emotions, which you can see seething from their expression. Just follow around for a while low-handicap golfers. They hate the status quo (e.g., their stroke, their putting, their score) and seem to be constantly looking for another level of performance.