Do the Best You Can…
January 1, 1970
It is an unhappy day in the life of anyone when he fails to find sincere satisfaction in doing useful things, and in doing them to the best of his ability. We all have ambitions; most of us want money; we may want prestige and position – all of which, as Ruskin observed, are acceptable as secondary
objectives, but all of which give less satisfaction that work well done. Most of us are obliged to work whether we want to or not. But there is an extra premium for pride in work – the pride of doing more
than simply getting by, the pride of equaling or improving our past performance. The makers of many things sell what are called “seconds” – substandard products under names other than their own. But a
man in his own life cannot hide behind another name. His label is indelibly on everything he does. Even
if it isn’t actually imprinted on his product, it is imprinted on his inner appraisal of his own performance. As one man bluntly fashioned a phrase, negative perhaps, but meaningful: “do the best you can – that’s
bad enough. We all fall so far short of perfection that less than our best is less than acceptable. It may
not appear that perfection is within the reach of mortal men. But reaching for it is within reach. And we should not be satisfied with substandard performance. We should not be satisfied with “seconds,” but
only with a product on which we could be proud to place our name. Since we should and must work
(and since life moves with such swiftness) it is important that we ask ourselves always whether we are putting out our top product, our top performance. If we are, we shall have the happiness and surpassing satisfaction that come with useful work well done. In doing, we move backward. And any time we
attempt to get by with as little effort as we can, we somehow slip.