People who don't go the distance
My mother told me about her friend's son who never exerted effort in school. I met that dude before, way back in elementary, and he has been known to really skip a huge test because "he doesn't feel like it". He can quickly skip school and waste time just because "he doesn't feel like it". All he cares about is that he can drive. He found experience when he was tasked to pick up relatives from the airport. To him, being a driver for people is enough to keep you going.
To me, enough isn't enough.
I strive to be the best in not just one, but many things. Focusing on one field is boring and would probably get you to the status of a nerd. Managing plenty of fields can be very challenging, but at least it makes you look awesome in the end, and if you manage to be a crossbreed of a powerjock and a brainiac, I must say you're probably a rare genetic syndrome of a human or whatever the crazy dudes call it.
I strive to be the best, because I CAN. Most people are happy with what they have now - the average education, the average skills, the average life, and the average future, but to me, nothing is enough. There's only one thing I want - more. In fact, when I built my latest rig, armed with a AMD Phenom II Black Edition at 2.8Ghz, 4GB of RAM, and dual HD4870s for graphics, it was obviously one of the most powerful gaming rigs in the existence of my country at the moment, not unless some random tard decides to be a dick and suck all the power of the country by building a server Xeon CPU and quad GPU config that requires over 1500W of power.
Yet I still envy that probably imaginary dude with a PC that would've cost more than 50000 dollars. It sucks that no matter how hard I try, there's always somebody else who can do better. Considering the fast-paced evolution of technology, it's gonna be a much, much difficult job to keep being the best.
However, "being the best" is nothing. It's only a mirage in the wide open desert that we try and rush for but end up just splashing in a huge shithole or just falling down in fatigue before even reaching it. Good thing though, there are these real goodies that we, the desert traveller, stumbles upon every once in a while, and they keep getting better and better. One might stumble upon a small waterhole, and after consuming the last bit of water inside and moving on to find another, discovers another waterhole, this time it's much much bigger and much more refreshing. The process will go on until you find an oasis, a town, a city, or even a rocketship that takes you to a planet where you're surrounded by hot babes serving you lemonade while you chill out in a huge jacuzzi with two girls on each arm. Of course, we call the planet "heaven", and God only knows and decides if you're fit enough to enter His crib. It would probably take you like a million years to get there, but who knows.
What I'm saying here is, there's no such thing as best. Ever. Advertisements may tell you that the Intel i7 Processor is the best processor there is. One can tell Twitter is the best social network site right now, even if it doesn't even resemble a social networking site. Those two are just the best right now, at this moment. In the future, there's probably something or someone that's going to overtake them and take their crown, and so on.
A winner's first instinct would be to grab this "best" object in all matters possible. Once he or she attains his or her goal, he or she has some time, which ranges from seconds to years, to sit in the throne of bestness. After that short period, the throne will kick the winner off itself and go run farther again. The winner, being very determined, will keep on following that chair and sit on it as much as possible.
That's my philosophy. As long as you still have a heart and a brain, keep on going. It doesn't matter if someone amputated your limbs and you're rendered useless. You can still run the distance, well, maybe with some help from people who are willing to help you move around places. You could go and exercise telepathy, or start a movement for people with amputated limbs.
