Every Day I Fight Mediocrity
What does selling consumer products have in common with Politics and Education. A LOT more than not. It’s about applying basic marketing principles and remember that you are selling perception more than anything else. You can’t fight it, because those who follow these marketing principles will win against those selling quality products or solutions in so many cases.
People who are mediocre don’t bother me that much unless their behavior crowds out excellence, and it gets in my way or I see it hurting excellent people.
By definition half the people in the world are below average, and many are mediocre or average. But that’s a fallacy. We ALL have some skills that are above average. And it’s a tragedy, if we don’t discover what those skills are, cultivate them, find and work with other excellence minded people in that area, and use this to make the world a better, more fun, more inspiring, and happier place.
Mediocrity infects excellence as it often demotivates people, and can cause depression and put you in a pit that is hard to get out of. There are many times when we want excellence and need others who are excellent and/or appreciate and strive for excellence. Some of us more than others, but nonetheless, I hope we all have a chance to experience groups of people we want work with who strive for real excellence and are constantly learning.
The biggest failure, is the failure to learn
So what determines if mediocrity or excellence will prevail. A lot has to do with the ability to clearly measure quality:
If quality is easy to measure (Right side of the above diagram), excellence will tend to prevail. For example, it’s pretty obvious if an airplane is of poor quality, it will crash and people will die. Live entertainment without preprogrammed material and electronics requires a lot of skills.
If quality is NOT easy to measure (Left side of the above diagram), mediocrity will tend to prevail. Especially if the stakes are high. The upper left quadrant (HIGH stakes, LOW ability to measure quality) provides HUGE opportunities for mediocre people. It attracts a lot of people because of the high stakes (and ability to make money and get power), and not only does it attract a lot of mediocre people (who don’t need deep skills), but they actually have an advantage because it’s a whole lot easier to LOOK good vs. BE good and the rewards are much higher.
It’s possible to work with excellence in that quadrant, but it’s VERY DIFFICULT. I used to be a lobbyist and it was pretty much impossible. There is just too much money and momentum which favors Machiavellian behavior. I currently work in Cybersecurity, and am constantly fighting people who want to do things that result in low cost and simplicity at the expense of security because almost nobody knows how to measure security, long term risk, and make people accountable. I fight mediocrity every day!!! I’m pretty good at it and have a very supportive boss and the support of many senior executives including the CEO (I work at a $2B public company), but I have to be very careful and clever and use special tools which enhance accountability and clarity of very complex scenarios.
I also am an entertainer in Manhattan and have low tolerance for people who don’t know how to put on a great show. Fortunately, here in NYC there are a lot of talented people who are motivated and inspired by excellence. (It cost so much to live here and this is a mecca for people following their dream, it works out pretty well).
So think about which quadrant you want to play in and which is suited to your skills. And whether you need skills or tools to fight mediocrity
Sadly, so many important factors in our collective lives are subject to intense mediocrity (e.g. Politics and education) and there isn’t much we can do about it….I suppose were screwed unless we help our young people seek excellence and find it before they fall into the pit.
