Is good enough really good enough?

I just spent 90 minutes of my morning in a Leadership Learning Community meeting, where we talked about the differences in your perspective when you're truly "excellent" and when you're operating at a "competent" level. I took great affront to this notion that being "merely competent" was somehow good enough for day to day operations. Unfortunately, I think that's what is wrong with my company and with a lot of society. We don't want to exert the energy to be our very best each and every day. We will marvel at the freaks who do care enough, but when push comes to shove, we aren't willing to take the time to do it.

Gee. I wonder if the engineers responsible for the levee system in New Orleans said "Well, that'll hold on pretty much any average day. It's good enough." I'd wager so. Is that what we, as a society, accept now days?

Maybe I just desparately need to find a different job.