Wisdom Nuggets (001)_Excellence

https://familyradio316.com/pursuing-excellence-a-mindset-of-excellence/

 

Excellence

According to the Oxford dictionary, Excellence is “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good”. Though, generally, we love works and people that are outstanding, excellence is a virtue that is hard to find in our generation. We have decided to be associated with mediocrity. People, of all kinds, really appreciate excellence because it is rare. Excellence means surpassing just being good at what you do. Many years are invested into excellence. Hence it will require patience, consistency and intentionality. You can look around and mention an example of excellence. This may be a person, institution, business, organization, etc. You will be fortunate to mention yourself among excellence.

 

My First Encounter

On 26th December 2022, I lost my uncle/guardian/mentor/friend, Eng. Andrew Ssekayinzi, to cancer. We were really close and used to share a lot. The term Excellence reminds me of the wisdom he shared with me in 2010 when I had just finished my undergraduate studies. After returning from Makerere Universityhttp://www.mak.ac.ug, I Informed him of my idea to stay at the university and join the academia. He was very okay with the idea. Though he advised me to choose completely between academia and field practice.

 

In his own words “If you have chosen to be in academia, then be in academia. This practice of running consultancy firms and at the same time pretending to be an academician will only make you a mediocre person. You will not be able to excel either in academia or field practice. Excellence requires you to be focussed at one thing at a time for long”. This piece of advice was later confirmed by my first employer, outside academia, Eng. Lammeck Kajubi at AirWaterEarth (AWE) Limited. Lammeck is excellent at whatever he touches. He left academia in 2008 to concentrate on leading AWE to one of the first best local companies in the oil and gas sector in Uganda. 

 

My uncle, Eng. Andrew Ssekayinzi, exhibited excellence at National Water and Sewerage Corporation where he worked for most of his time. For a long time, I did not put into practice his advice. I tried juggling academia and field practice for many years. Fortunately or unfortunately, I found out myself that I was not excelling at any of the two. However, the advice came in handy, at the end of last year when I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life. Luckily enough, I had discussed it with him before he died.

 

So

What have you decided to excel in? What is that one thing you have decided to be very good at and you can state your pay? Where everyone looks for your expertise or services. Before 35 years, it is very okay to juggle many things. But make sure, between 35-40 years, choose something that you can focus on and become excellent at. As you grow older, you realize that your physical energy keeps on reducing. Especially at 40 years, you have reached your maximum for most people, and now reversing back to your days as a baby. In these years you will need more of your mental energy. Keep on building your mind through various ways and means.