This post is inspired by Tom Peters. In fact I have taken the topic of this post from Tom’s write-up on “Excellence” straight from the free e-book “What Matters Now” that Seth Godin recently released on his blog and a number of other sites (including Active Garage).
I fell in love with this quote as soon as I saw it and was deeply moved by all that it could mean. Here are a few that got triggered in my thinking:
It challenges mediocrity at all levels… because mediocrity deals with accepting what is, as-is. Being in status-quo. Adjusting. Compromising. Coping. Mediocrity does not produce stellar results. It always produces the same, common result and thus gets priced in the marketplace. That’d explain the gap between the movers and shakers, and the common people.
Call for Action: It is a beautifully constructed statement that clearly Calls for Action. Nothing happens without action… Nothing that you intended, actually.
It is Purposeful: It is Purposeful, in that, it is a step that needs to be taken in order to do something new.
It is a Precursor to Creating: Without creating a space where something new can be brought about, no creation is possible. In other words, until the old takes up the space, the new cannot get in!
It is Risky! – Yes, it is… because it will take us to the unknown. But, the unknown is not always undesirable. Just ask Christopher Columbus OR Albert Einstein OR Yourself (when you last stepped into the unknown)
I invite you to reflect on this for a while with work, your entrepreneurial venture, and your life and contribute to this incomplete list of what all this could mean… perhaps this could even make it into your New Year’s resolution list!
This is part of the “Dirty Dozen” series. Part 3 covered the word “Complacency” and today we will look at the word “Mediocrity.”
Dictionary definition: The quality or state of being mediocre
If you think about it, mediocrity has no set standards. When someone sets a higher standard in the marketplace for something, the rest of the people who are operating at a standard lower than this “higher standard” will be operating in mediocrity.
Plasma screen TVs made the earlier generation TVs mediocre
iPhone made the earlier cool phones mediocre
Kindle made the Sony reader mediocre
Nintendo Wii made a whole line of video games mediocre
You don’t typically choose to operate in mediocrity. You just end up there if you don’t strive to operate in setting higher standards in the marketplace.
The funny thing is that many people operating in mediocrity are doing so because they don’t want to “walk the extra mile.” However, just because there is an oversupply of people operating in this zone, there is a dog fight going on in this zone. In fact, traffic is smoother in the “extra mile” as there are less people in that zone.
Mediocrity is a silent killer be it in personal life or professional life.
Your life is a gift and it calls for a celebration. Living in mediocrity is simply not the way to celebrate it.
You can also listen to the audio here:
Note:
Illustration by Ming. Ming is the creator of the Fantasy Story webcomic. He is also a freelance illustrator, designer, painting instructor and occasional luxury car salesman. Ming is based in Penang, Malaysia. You can find him on twitter @Artmaker
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This post is inspired by Tom Peters. In fact I have taken the topic of this post from Tom’s write-up on “Excellence” straight from the free e-book “What Matters Now” that Seth Godin recently released on his blog and a number of other sites (including Active Garage).
This article was contributed by Himanshu Jhamb, co-founder of ActiveGarage (The company behind 99tribes) and co-author of #PROJECT MANAGEMENT tweet. You can follow Himanshu on Twitter at himjhamb.
This is part of the “Dirty Dozen” series. Part 3 covered the word “
