No One Wants to be Mediocre

Let’s talk about being mediocre.?

It’s a term greeted with a universal, “I don’t want to be there.” Yet, when I talk with other business owners about the concept of the mediocre entrepreneur, the better the business owner, the more likely that owner will say, “That’s me.”

So, if no one wants to be mediocre, yet when asked about themselves and the owner is being honest, they’ll admit they’re actually mediocre. Then they have a little laugh about that. I wonder if that might be true for you.

No one wants to strive for mediocrity.

I don’t want to, and you don’t want to strive for mediocrity. At the same time, we can’t be excellent at everything we try to do. Those who try end up unhappy and unsuccessful.

I know that there are a few things I'm world class at. The rest, I’m at best mediocre.

When I work with my clients, I tell them the things I'm a 9 or a 10 at, I’ll be doing with you. The things I’m a five at, we’ll find other experts who can provide the outcome you want.

When I tell someone I’ve a five at something, I’m telling them I’m mediocre. I know enough to get in trouble, but not enough to provide a world class experience.

When I discovered the concept, it was a freeing experience.

The more I thought about the concept of the mediocre entrepreneur, the freer I felt. I no longer had to know everything about everything. I allow myself to focus on what I’m great at, and build my Rolodex for everything else.

Thinks about this for a minute, just a minute. When you admit you’re mediocre at something, you are freeing up bandwidth for focusing on what you love and what you’re good at. You no longer have to worry about fixing your weaknesses. You just have to manage them.

Do you want to be master of the universe?

If you insist on seeing yourself great at anything, you risk being seen as a know it all. I know for a fact that’s how many people saw me in my thirties. Even if I didn’t know what I was talking about, I would pretend I did.

The only thing this accomplished for me was being seen as a blowhard. When I thought I needed to be good at everything, I was hardly good at anything. Only after focusing on what I had ability and ambition did this start to change.

And, the number of things I can do I have both ability and ambition is a small number.

What if you were to give yourself a break?

My advice about being the master of the universe is to watch this Bob Newhart bit and just “stop it.”?

Give yourself a break and stop trying to be all things to all people. You can simplify your life by admitting that you are just OK at most things in life. You don’t have to try to be great at everything.

When I admitted this to myself, my life became more enjoyable and much simpler.

This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy being mediocre.

Many of the things I love to do, I’m just mediocre at them. For example, I love to ski. There is no way anyone will confuse me for a world class or even a real expert skier. Yes, I can get down most trails, and the really hard ones aren’t all the fun.

Instead, when I ski trails that are just a little less difficult, I have a lot more fun. I don’t need to be great, I just need to have fun.

Same was true when I played tennis and my musical instruments.

Why don’t you think about this?

Here are three things to think about:

1. I don’t want to be great at everything. There’s way too much pressure there.
2. There are some things I’m mediocre at, and I want to continue to improve. - Writing is a good example of that for me. What might one or two of those be for you, and make sure it’s only one or two things.
3. You might find that being world-class isn’t worth the effort. You either don’t have a natural ability or don’t have the ambition to put the work in. For me, this is a discovery I’ve recently made about public speaking. I enjoy it, but am never going to be as good as the greats.

What do you think about not wanting to be mediocre, but accepting that for most things, that’s exactly where we are? Why don’t you hit return and let me know what you think?

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