Mediocrity at Its Best

Mike Litman once started addressing a 200 odd audience on the topic 'Say goodbye to mediocrity' by saying “You weren’t born to be in this room tonight.” What he really meant was "You, I, we…we weren’t born to be average. We weren’t born to strive for mediocrity in life. And we weren’t born to spend our lives at jobs we can’t stand."

That makes me realize that there are not two but three kinds of people in this world: the winners, the losers, and the mediocres. While the first two are easy to locate, the world is actually full of the third ones who largely go un-noticed. At least 90% of us belong to this category. And we always make desperate attempts to get out of this mould. But don't we question ourselves sometimes that am I truly a mediocre? Who is a real mediocre? And is it a curse to be one? I am just trying to explore these thoughts here.

Lets define mediocrity first. Oxford dictionary put it as 'Moderate fortune or condition in life' or 'A thing equally removed from two opposite extremes'. I see it as a relative term. A student or a piece of art may be mediocre among one set of peers but may be a genius or a masterpiece in the other. The choice is yours: to be called a genius in a group of dimwits or challenge yourself among intellects. 

Now, let us see how bad it is belonging to this category. I have got used to analyzing things from both the perspectives: optimistic and pessimistic. Lets see how it fits here.

Pessimists say a mediocre's life is dreadful. On the one hand, they have a perennial urge to climb up the ladder, which they are not able to given their mediocrity. On the other hand, mediocres always have a fear of falling into the dungeon of losers. Its like a game of snakes and ladders with too many snakes and too few ladders.

Once during my school days, when I was among the toppers in my class, one of my friend, a so-called average student, told me, "Atul, I study a lot to displace you from your rank". To this I replied, "Can you imagine how hard is it to retain the spot." And he really did achieve his goal in the very next exams. That brings me to the optimistic side of being a mediocre. I think mediocrity is easy to sustain and even improve. The losers don't care and thus hardly pose a challenge. And success is difficult to maintain once achieved which is why winners get nightmares of dropping down from the pinnacle. All a mediocre needs is to give that gentle push.

So is there a way out. Sure, I say. But the process should be strategic, carried out with patience and determination. Have a long term mission to be a winner, but make achievable goals towards moving up tier by tier within this mediocrity. And finally when your mediocrity is at its best, you can give that extra push to replace the winner.