"Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving."
— Ivan, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
A character sets out with a certain goal in mind. Eventually, they become so successful that not only do they reach their initial goal, but they surpass it. For example:
- Someone intends to make a certain amount of money; they make more.
- Someone wants to earn a job or a promotion; they get an even better one.
- Someone studies hard in order to get a specific grade in school; their grade ends up being higher.
- Someone tries to get a date with a girl; they end up getting dates with several.
Can result in rewards for the character. Supertrope to Surplus Damage Bonus, Over 100% Completion, and Critical Hit. Compare Springtime for Hitler.
Note: This trope is for when surpassing a goal has positive or neutral results. See Gone Horribly Right for when a goal is exceeded but has negative consequences.
Examples:
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Film — Animation
- Zootopia
- Rookie officer Judy Hopps of the Zootopia Police Department gets assigned to parking duty. When she protests, Chief Bogo chides her with: "Writing a hundred tickets a day should be easy." Being The Determinator, Judy then ups the ante to "I'll write 200 tickets. Before noon." And she does. Actually, 201: she even dinged herself.
- Judy is grudgingly given a missing mammal case, and 48 hours to find him by fed-up Chief Bogo; otherwise, she must forfeit her badge. With help from Lovable Rogue Nick Wilde, Judy not only finds Emmett Otterton but the other 13 missing mammals as well. And then, she deduces why these mammals went savage, and obtains an Accidental Public Confession from the Big Bad. Way to go, rookie!
Film — Live-Action
- In Office Space, Peter's Penny Shaving plan ends up Going Horribly Right, as they end up stealing much more money than they planned. They hoped to steal just enough to go unnoticed, but they end up stealing much more. Thinking they'll get caught, Peter attempts to return the money with a confession note, but the check and note are intercepted by Milton, the office Butt-Monkey, who takes the money, burns down the office building, and retires to a Mexican beach resort.
Literature
- Vorkosigan Saga: The page quote comes from Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, where Ivan says the Vorkosigan motto might as well be 'Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving'.
Live-Action TV
- At the beginning of the second season of Breaking Bad, Walter White estimates that he would need to earn $737,000 from selling meth in order to pay his medical bills and provide for his family. By the time he finally retires from the business, he's made an estimated $80 million!
- The Diff'rent Strokes episode "Shoot-Out at the O.K. Arcade" has Arnold bet Willis that he can beat him in a game of Space Suckers. After beating him, Arnold continues playing and goes on to win the game.
- Married... with Children: Al works with Kelly to create a short film about shoes in order to get into the shoe industry newsletter Shoe News. Not only does his film get him into the newsletter, he ends up taking first place in a film festival and winning a $10,000 grant from the NEA.
- Jay and David from We Got It Made need some extra cash to make rent, and learn that their maid Mickey has a recipe for delicious chocolate chip cookies. The three start an in-home bakery, baking cookies sold in a mailing tube along with a cheesecake poster of shapely housemaid Mickey. The guys make enough to cover rent, and then some. Edges into Gone Horribly Right when consumer demand drives them to keep baking the cookies to the point of exhaustion.
Western Animation
- ¡Mucha Lucha!: In the episode "Weight Gaining" Rickochet wishes to challenge Potato Potata Jr., El Haystack Grande and Francisco of the Forest to a 3-on-1 wrestling match after they make fun of him. The problem is he has to gain their accumulated weight for the match to be official, since The Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha goes by a weight class system. By the end of his food binge, Rickochet becomes a literal giant and outweighs his potential opponents by TONS! Putting himself in a weight class all his own.
- Family Guy: The episode "Start Me Up" has Brian, Chris and Stewie create a Kickstarter for a fake movie in the hopes of making $3000 to pay off the damages to a store Stewie and Chris caused. Once they made the money, they planned on backing out of the project and shutting it down. After a misfire which involves a call placed to the entire city of New York and another with a video by Stewie, they've raised $1,500,000 and really do have to make the film.
- The Simpsons: In "King Size Homer", Homer sets up a goal to reach 300 pounds so he can get on disability. His efforts end with him going 15 pounds beyond his goal.
Real Life
- The Stakhanovite movement
was based around inciting the workers to go beyond the official norms.
- Virtually any Kickstarter project that manages to go beyond its initial projected end goal counts. But of special note is the Kickstarter for the video game Yooka-Laylee. Within the first 38 minutes of being launched it reached its initial goal of £175,000 (US$270,041). By the end of its campaign? It reached over £2,090,084 (US$3,270,417.14); fulfilling every stretch goal and then some.
- In 2019, the Critical Role team had created a Kickstarter to fund The Legend of Vox Machina, a 22-minute animated special based on an adventure from before they started streaming. The Kickstarter goal was $750,000, with a max stretch goal of $3 million, and 45 days to fund the project. Within the first hour, the group had already exceeded $1 million, and within less than half a day, already passed their $3 million stretch goal. By the end of the 45 days, the group had funded $11 million, enough to turn what was originally a one episode special into a 12 episode series.
