Success vs. Excellence (Part II)

Success offers a hoped-for future goal.

Excellence provides a striven-for present standard.

Success bases our worth on a comparison with others.

Excellence gauges our value by measuring us against our own potential.

Success grants its rewards to the few, but is the dream of the multitudes.

Excellence is available to all living beings, but is accepted by the special few.

Success focuses its attention on the external—becoming the tastemaker for the insatiable appetites of the conspicuous consumer.

Excellence beams its spotlight on the internal spirit— becoming the quiet, but pervasive, conscience of the conscientious who yearn for integrity.

Success engenders fantasy and a compulsive groping for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Excellence brings us to reality, and a deep gratitude for the affirming promise of the rainbow.

Success encourages expedience and compromise, which prompts us to treat people as means to our ends.

Excellence cultivates principles and consistency, which ensure that we will treat all persons as intrinsically valuable ends—the apex of our heavenly Father’s creation.