"I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between."

This is one of Ayn Rand's quotes from "The Fountainhead".

It is a very interesting quote. Why you may ask, why does it interest me? I aim to follow this rule in any work that I do. Anything that we do, should be done with complete honesty and effort. What is the use of a half-hearted attempt at a particular job? Does it not reflect on our capability? Does it not reflect on our character? Our work ethic?

At times, it feels like I'm being naive. But then, I wonder... What gives us the right to say some jobs are worthless and some aren't? Nothing. Whatever a person does, is his choice or necessity. But he has the choice to do it well. And if he doesn't want to do it all, then why continue in that job? If it is a necessity, then why do we complain about it? One might say, if we can't complain to our friends and close ones, who else do we talk to... but just ranting about something doesn't necessarily make it better. Maybe, instead of that, we need to take charge of our own lives and do something. The definition of that something might be different for different people. Does this mean something good? Or something right? By whose standards?

This reminds me of another one of her quotes from "Atlas Shrugged" ... "For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it."

How true.