On the Pursuit of Excellence

One should seek to do his life's work as if God Almighty called him at this particular moment in history to do it. And he must do it with a sense of cosmic responsibility, no matter how small it happens to be. He must do an ordinary job in an extraordinary way. "If you can't be a pine on the top of a hill, be a scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub on the side of the hill. Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be the sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or you fail. Be the best of whatever you are.
- Martin Luther King Jr