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All successful endeavors require self-motivation and effort.

Competence, merit, and standards of excellence are universal and inform every successful human endeavor.

There is no area of human life in which competence and merit are irrelevant

Competence, Merit, and Excellence Have Always Been Social Universal Strengths

Neither competence, merit, nor standards of excellence is a fashion, a preference, or a cultural construct. They are universal principles that inform what exists, what works, what endures, and what advances skills, knowledge, insights, and understanding.

Every successful human endeavor (from the earliest stone tools to the most recent complex technologies) has been governed by the same universal laws. Universal laws are not invented; they are discovered. Once discovered, as noted, these universal truths lead to ongoing advancements in skills, knowledge, insights, and understanding that need to be applied to achieve standards of excellence (Friedman et al., 2024; Oliveira et al., 2024; Siemoneit, 2023).

Thoughts, Choices, Actions, Merit, and Competence

The pyramids did not rise because someone wished them into existence. The Egyptians, the Aztecs, and the Incas all independently developed and built monumental structures in accordance with universal truths.

This is as true in the intellectual realm as it is in the physical, external world. Medicine did not advance because someone felt it should. It advanced because individuals tested, observed, corrected, refined, and applied knowledge with rigor.

Science, engineering, mathematics, literature, music, all of the trades—in fact, every discipline that has ever elevated humanity—have done so because individuals committed themselves to the pursuit of excellence, which required meeting all standards of competence and merit.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and NASA

Even the greatest collective achievements of the modern era became possible only because NASA ensured that competence and merit were the organizing principles. The moon landing was achieved only because thousands of people (with the skills, knowledge, competence, and merit-based achievements) across multiple disciplines were selected and then adhered to and applied universal truths with absolute precision.

It was only the universal application of competence, merit, and the unrelenting pursuit of excellence that made it possible for Neil Armstrong to become the first man to walk on the moon, for Buzz Aldrin to follow, and for the successful rendezvous with Michael Collins in lunar orbit before returning safely to Earth.

Competence, Merit, and Excellence Exist in Every Discipline

The same is true across every intellectual and physical discipline one cares to name. The trades, medicine, engineering, sports, the arts, science, organizational human relationships,........

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