As you know I’m reading the book by Michael Erath, the 5 obsessions of elite organizations and I’m loving it…in it he reminds us that Nick Saban once said:

“Mediocre people don’t like high achievers, and high achievers don’t like mediocre people.”

It’s blunt, but boy is it true. Excellence has a way of exposing the gap between those willing to push and those who settle. That gap always creates tension. It’s a reminder of something we explored in our issue 00005 “Know thyself” when I referred to a book my buddy, James Hall, recommended called Beyond High Performance by Jason Jaggard.

High performers and achievers think, act, and live differently — and not everyone around them is comfortable with that.

But here’s the thing: if you want to pursue excellence, you have to accept the friction that comes w ...