This document discusses working towards excellence in anesthesia. It defines excellence as connecting knowledge and skills in a way that goes beyond being a mere technician. It discusses four roles of anesthesiologists and profiling excellence. It also discusses enhancing excellence through non-technical skills like task management, teamwork, and decision making which can be improved through training, experience and reflection. It notes that just following explicit rules and guidelines may be an obstacle to reaching excellence and that tacit knowledge gained from experience is important.