I don’t know if I spelt the word ‘mediocricity’ correctly, and I don’t care.
I know one thing for sure, that being mediocre is just plain stupid. I make it sound like as if people do this by choice, this being ‘just average’. I do this because really, that is what people do; they choose to be average. Like me.
Now, I have had my fair share of failures and successes. Besides, being successful is at best, a subjective measure; you may be successful although someone else may think you are a complete reject. That, at the end of the day, does not matter.
We as a nation – Pakistanis – are champions of this ‘being average’ stuff. Just take a look around. I recently had a carpenter fixing up a 20-year-old cupboard. Now, from past experiences, I know that this carpenter is to wood what Picasso was to paint; a friggin’ genius. Unfortunately, the cupboard ended up looking like a bad experiment in cubism when this carpenter was done with it. Why? It is this ‘unees-bees’ (nineteen-twenty) syndrome, of course.
We stop at 19. The required result is 20, but because we know we are at 19, we stop; ‘heck, it is close enough.’ And we are right, it is close enough – but not good enough, man. I know you can take it to 20 – why not do it?
Consistency and Pride
We are not consistent, and we don’t take pride in what we do. I feel that a lot of us do not even know that we are supposed to be consistent in our output and take pride in our work. These are simple concepts – probably that is why they are misunderstood so often (our need – as humans – to complicate things is at work here).
Being consistent: if I start an enterprise, (Case in point: PicPrintr), I can consistently suck at it or consistently deliver a great product, is that what consistency means? No. It is much simpler and personal than that. Consistency is that I actually started a new enterprise, given that I call myself an entrepreneur. It is this consitency that I find myself lacking and then telling myself to come up with.
Take Pride: It is as simple as being able to show what you have done to any number of people. Nothing more, and definitely nothing less. I assure you, this test in itself is not easy – the idea of rejection, of embarrassed smile by the people you care about, is enough to make me cringe and stop what I am trying to do. This is where simplicity takes over and you cut through the bullshit – and do what you have to do, this time taking it to 21 instead of stopping at 19, because all that is required is 20.
It took me some time to put ‘Director’ as my post for the companies/brands that I started (four in total, so far). I was ashamed to be 21 years old and a Director of a company that had the Director as the Tea Boy as well. Heh. That was when I was 21. Now I am 28. Now I have taught myself not to give a damn. Besides, now I have a tea boy, paid for 
, Alhumdulillah. Now I am Director if I want to be, Consultant if I feel like it, or CEO if the mood is right. The role of the company is not to bestow upon me a flashy post, remember? It is nothing but a logical segregation in my mind of doing stuff. Stuff that I like. First, I believed that companies had to have an office with people and accountants and bank accounts. Then I realized that a company is just a ‘compartment’ in my mind to funnel my activities to help me think. Period. (Always keep it simple, people).
I have accepted ‘this’ as the best that I can do, and this is the problem. People, I sleep when I want to, I play when I want to, I earn more than most of my friends, and work when I feel like. Yes, at times, I feel that all of this is a dream that will go away in a blink of an eye. It does not help when I can see how it can go away, if God so wills. But if God gave me all of this, obviously it is His to take. But the point is, being average has nothing to do with your ‘achievements’, and this is again something that is important to understand. Being average is staying the same for an extended period of time. That is not living, that is just killing time. That, ladies and gentlemen, is mediocricity.
Throwing in a What..If here and there
What if you could travel the world, write best sellers (books, products, businesses), give a larger percentage of your earnings to charity, help people smile and be at peace, all at the same time? The thing is, had I been doing that for more than two years or so, I am sure that would have that dry taste of ‘being average’. Till then, here I come, God willing.
