“Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.” — Jose Ortega y Gasset

I agree. To excel, especially in today’s world, you have to go beyond what others are willing to. It’s not about absolutes. It’s about relative value. If you do more than others, if you force yourself to do more than others, you’ll naturally rise to the top. Too many people benchmark themselves against others today. To excel, you have to do more than what others do. And this often means doing what hasn’t been done before, and what seems unreasonable at that point. That’s the only way to excel and to stand out; it’s the only way to do something (positively) significant.