As I embark on a pilgrimage with my 65-year-old little brother to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, I am also frantically trying to complete a book on “The Exemplary Policing Organization.”
As my two worlds collided, I got to thinking about what it means to be exemplary, to be one of the best ever at something — to be worthy of inclusion in a hall of fame.
At the root of this has to be a relentless pursuit of excellence and a combination of humility and hubris — the humility to realize that, however good you are now, you could be better, and the hubris to believe you are good enough to be better.
It also occurred to me that while being among the very best may be the ultimate goal, the only way to achieve that goal is to continually strive to be better. Being better than you were before does not necessarily make you one of the best, but it is the only road to where you want to go.
And even if you do not end up in the hall of fame of what you do, being better is still better. You can’t lose by relentlessly pursuing excellence.