May 15, 2023

Why Half-Hearted Effort Won't Cut It: The Importance of Doing Things Well

by
Grace Olabanji
share

This quote dates as far back as 1774, Philip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, wrote it in a letter to his son. This was a piece of the letter, and has stuck around for almost three centuries now. Philip wrote quite a lot of letters to his son on the art of becoming a man of the world and a gentleman.

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

This quote dates as far back as 1774, Philip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, wrote it in a letter to his son. This was a piece of the letter, and has stuck around for almost three centuries now. Philip wrote quite a lot of letters to his son on the art of becoming a man of the world and a gentleman.

I would like to believe the reason this quote is and will remain valid is because we, as humans, will always do something. Whatever it is, we call our activities actions and in English are termed as verbs, which means doing words.

Except by chance, they stripped a person of the ability to take action. It is an innate drive to move and get things done. Lord Chesterfield understood this but went a step further by clarifying the manner in which we carry out activities or do things.

There are three distinct ways to get things done, either you get it done, you get it done well or not do it at all.

Today’s world is more driven by results, so the first option surpasses others. It is like building a website. No one wants to know how many days it took to write the code or figure out a particular design flaw. What they want to see is how good the website looks. How about in photography? Anyone can take a picture and edit them to give you what you want. But it takes more than that to give you great photos.

However, doing things well requires working differently, the extra hours of focus, creativity and innovation you put into work is what I believe the 4th Earl of Chesterfield was referring to. It doesn’t matter if today’s world is only crazy about results, the how is as important as the end goal.

Then there is not doing it at all. It is better to pick this option than just doing it without doing it well. No shade to Nike, but I am sure they meant well.

At Studio10, photography is the air we breathe. We take pride in doing things well and if we are being modest, we might be direct descendants of Lord Chesterfield. Going the extra mile to get things done is our forte, and if you want, you can be added to the family tree.

‍

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

This quote dates as far back as 1774, Philip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, wrote it in a letter to his son. This was a piece of the letter, and has stuck around for almost three centuries now. Philip wrote quite a lot of letters to his son on the art of becoming a man of the world and a gentleman.

I would like to believe the reason this quote is and will remain valid is because we, as humans, will always do something. Whatever it is, we call our activities actions and in English are termed as verbs, which means doing words.

Except by chance, they stripped a person of the ability to take action. It is an innate drive to move and get things done. Lord Chesterfield understood this but went a step further by clarifying the manner in which we carry out activities or do things.

There are three distinct ways to get things done, either you get it done, you get it done well or not do it at all.

Today’s world is more driven by results, so the first option surpasses others. It is like building a website. No one wants to know how many days it took to write the code or figure out a particular design flaw. What they want to see is how good the website looks. How about in photography? Anyone can take a picture and edit them to give you what you want. But it takes more than that to give you great photos.

However, doing things well requires working differently, the extra hours of focus, creativity and innovation you put into work is what I believe the 4th Earl of Chesterfield was referring to. It doesn’t matter if today’s world is only crazy about results, the how is as important as the end goal.

Then there is not doing it at all. It is better to pick this option than just doing it without doing it well. No shade to Nike, but I am sure they meant well.

At Studio10, photography is the air we breathe. We take pride in doing things well and if we are being modest, we might be direct descendants of Lord Chesterfield. Going the extra mile to get things done is our forte, and if you want, you can be added to the family tree.

‍

‍

No items found.