Competing for Mediocrity

There is less competition going for the top than those shooting for mediocrity. The first time I heard this, I thought it was BS. Then I started looking around at the people that really go for the top and there aren’t many. I have found most people target mediocrity so that’s exactly what they get. They are usually too afraid to focus on going for it all. Instead, they target goals they think are reasonable based on their learned beliefs and also based on what everyone around them says. 

Fundamentally, this is a flawed thinking and here’s why:  Usually the actions that one takes to get to the top are not very different from the actions it takes to get to mediocre goals.

Here is an example:  I had a friend that was the number one sales person for a packaging company. Here is what he did that was different from all the other players. 1) He didn’t take a lunch break. He drove to his next appointments instead. 2) He routed out his calls the night before so he could get the most calls in during the day. 3) He would work one territory at a time and train his clients on what day he was in their territory so they wouldn’t have him drive across the state.

Never did he really work any harder or longer, he just worked smarter.  He would have contests with himself to see how many cold calls he could make. These are the types of activities which made him about as effective as eight sales people combined.

Again, he didn’t work that much harder. Because he set his goals to much higher standard, it forced him to innovate to achieve more. These new efficiencies paid dividends that were about 400% more productivity than his nearest counterpart yet he really only worked about 10% percent more.

All this while enjoying a literally three times the compensation of his nearest competing sales person.

Yesterday, I got started a little late than usual.  Usually I get up at 5:30am, I’m out the door at 6:30am, and I’m  at my favorite coffee shop at 7:00am planning my day, my week , and reviewing my goals. However, yesterday I came to this realization about the competition for mediocrity. I left the house at 7:45 and didn’t get to the office till almost 9:00. (Yep, that’s right – traffic.) My usual 25 minute drive ballooned to nearly 40 minutes. My trip to Starbucks was four times as long as it usually takes because of the extreme line, and I was frazzled about being behind the email barrage that had already set in.

It was a clear lesson: There is tremendous competition for mediocrity. I don’t want to be part of it.

(Thank you to Hugh MacLeod for the cartoon.)