Everything Counts: 52 Remarkable Ways to Inspire Excellence and Drive Results

Chapter 7. Quality Counts

"A commitment to quality means never having to say you're sorry."

Quality is about love; it's a passionate obsession with perfection. It is the result of good intentions, uncompromising standards, sincere effort, intelligent design, attention to detail, and skillful execution. Quality is the calling card of greatness, and it represents the wisest choice among many alternatives.

True quality is only achieved through continuous improvement in performance that ensures the highest standards of your products, services, processes, and technology. If you intend to be competitive, then quality—in the broadest sense of the term—must become an obsession. Dynamic, sustainable results will only be achieved through an obsession with quality.

High achievers are essentially scientists whose laboratories happen to be any of a variety of places—the kitchen, athletic field, courtroom, classroom, and boardroom. They test assumptions, experiment with new concepts and ideas, and search through the minutia looking for the needle in the haystack that can lead to a breakthrough and competitive edge. In the pursuit of quality, high achievers bring a methodical, pragmatic, and demanding approach to work. Because these individuals only want to produce the best results, their personal standards are uncompromising. In their pursuit of perfection, they pay rigorous attention to detail, expect greatness, and consistently deliver superior results. In their efforts to perform at the top of ...