Challenge the Ordinary

Chapter OneLet a Winner Lead the Way

The lyrics from the song “Step to the Rear,” in the 1967 Broadway production How Now, Dow Jones, announced that “here’s where we separate the notes from the noise, the men from the boys, the rose from the poison ivy.” In this rousing musical, the characters center their lives around the stock market and saving the U.S. economy. Sounds like a familiar theme resurfacing—reality imitating art? In the world of business, separating the critical from the unimportant, the real thing from the imposter, the business where average people want to work from the exceptional organization, is no less essential.

We suspected then, but know now, that ordinary just won’t work anymore. Research indicates that only a handful ...