Amateurs vs. professionals
I'm not a huge fan of sports analogies for business. They tend to be overdone, and they can alienate sizable segments of the population. But it has to be conceded there are moments in professional sports that are worth retelling, because they capture something timeless and awe-inspiring in human nature.
I remember such a moment from about thirteen years ago. Georges St. Pierre, one of the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts history, had just defeated Dan Hardy after five grueling championship rounds at UFC 111. It was a decision victory, and just seconds after being declared the winner St. Pierre dashed off to his locker room. He clearly had no interest in media interviews and public celebrations.
Dana White, the President of the UFC, was taken aback to see St. Pierre exit the ring so abruptly, and he followed him to the locker room to check in. He found St. Pierre on the floor with one of his sparring partners, re-training a submission move that somehow hadn't worked in the fourth round against Hardy. St. Pierre was experimenting with fresh variations of this move, repeatedly asking his coach: "Where did I go wrong?"
Think about that. The man had just re-established himself as champion of the world, but his nagging concern in the moment was: What more can I learn? He had a vision of technical perfection for which he was perpetually striving. This was the dominant source of his motivation. This, of course, was what made him the champion.
Professionals display a unique mindset, one that can be contrasted with an 'amateur' perspective. Broadly speaking, professionals have a wider lens, feel greater responsibility, and are driven to pursue an ideal that always seems tantalizingly close but unattainable. We might distinguish the two mindsets across several dimensions:
Every profession is a forum in which to cultivate and embody excellence. When the performance ideal is lofty enough, we start to see the significance of every detail. Sometimes, when these finer points of our domain seem dry and irrelevant, it's because we need to raise our standards. These are the moments we move from amateur to professional.