In my personal worldview, we’re all equal at the level of Human Being. At the time of this writing, my wife and I are proud parents of a 2-year-old daughter with another kid on the way, and my value for both of those little beings is exactly the same: priceless. One day all-too-soon, those kids will be adults. And even if one makes a million bucks a year more than the other kid, their value to me, as their dad, is infinite. Without question.

“Performance” is a general term across domains — like “Talent,” “Gift,” or even “Achievement” — which I define as: the value a person is able to extract from their account of infinite potential on the inside, put into some service or product or contribution, to impact and influence the world around them.

I believe this system of realizing untapped potential is how we ultimately judge ourselves and others around us as successful, or not. Ask yourself, “Did I make a net-positive impact on the world around me today, even in the smallest way… or not?”

Now, I’ve never heard God speak to me, that I know of. But when I ask myself that question, “Did I make a positive impact today?” in a private, nearly prayer-like way at the end of the day, I get an answer every time. And the answer doesn’t lie. Some part of me is keeping tabs on that scorecard of impact — and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have that same scorecard. And it drives us nuts (literally) when we have a sense that we are losing on that scorecard.

Therefore, an “Elite” Performer would be a person who is among the best in the world at bringing value, positive impact, to the world around them. Often in more than one domain, e.g.: a pro athlete and outstanding humanitarian; a great mom and small business owner; a wonderful husband and gourmet cook; captain of the team with a 4.0+ GPA.

An Elite Performer (EP) isn’t more intrinsically valuable as a human being than anyone else in history; but he/she has likely figured out how to bring massive value to those around them in at least a couple different domains, because they don’t like who they are/how they feel when they don’t do that. Their human capital is infinite, just like everyone else. And their market value is a growing number, or could be translated to such metrics, in the markets in which they operate, because they are bringing value to other people.