How I Overcame My Mediocrity

Posted on July 10, 2015 by resourcefulman

I’m pretty mediocre. I am ashamed to admit it. I’m not even speaking sarcastically or self-deprecating. I’ve never done anything that stood out like “hey! This guy went out into outer space! Or … this guy has the best-selling novel! Or … if only Google had thought about it! “

I have had some successes and some setbacks (well documented here), but never achieved any of the goals I originally set. Always slipping out of the yellow brick road into the wilderness on the road. I’ve founded a bunch of companies. I sold something. Failed at most. I’ve invested in a bunch of startups. I sold something. In some cases this has failed, and in some others, the jury is still limited.

I have written several books, most of which I no longer like. However, I can tell you in general that everything I did was distinguished by its mediocrity, lack of grandiose vision, and any success I had could be put in the basket of luck and effort.

However, all people should be lucky. We cannot all be great visionaries. We cannot all be Picasso. We want to develop our business, create our art, sell it, make money, create a family and try to be happy. Based on my own experience, I believe that striving for grandeur is the fastest path to failure. For every Mark Zuckerberg, there are 1,000 Jack Zuckerman.

Who is Jack Zuckerman? I have no idea. This is my point of view. If you’re Jack Zuckerman reading this, I’m sorry. You aimed at the stars and missed. Your return to atmosphere was due to a broken heat shield, and you burned to the ground by the time you hit the ocean. Now we have no idea who you are. If you want to get rich, sell your company, find time for a hobby, raise a decent family (with mediocre kids, etc.) and enjoy the sunset with your wife on occasion, here are some of my very effective recommendations.

Procrastination

Meanwhile, as I wrote the last sentence and the time I wrote this, I played (and lost) chess. My king and my queen are divided by a knight. But it does happen. Smash me once, shame on me, etc. Procrastination is your body telling you to step back a little and think more about what you are doing.

When you, as an entrepreneur, procrastinate, it may mean that you need a little more time to think about what you are proposing to the client. It can also mean that you are doing work that is not your forte and you are better off delegating. I have found that many entrepreneurs try to do everything when it would be cheaper and more time efficient to delegate authority, even if it comes with a monetary cost.

In my first business, it was like having a light bulb in my head when I first delegated the programming work not to me, but to someone else. At that time, I went on a date. Which was infinitely better than sweating all night over some stupid programming bug (thanks Chet for solving this problem). Try to understand why you are procrastinating. Maybe you need more brainstorming to improve your idea. Maybe the idea isn’t good enough anyway. Maybe you need to delegate authority. Maybe you need to find out more. Maybe you don’t like what you are doing. Maybe you don’t like the client you just worked on on a project. Maybe you need to take a break.

For so many seconds in a row, you can think of something before you need to rest and rebuild your creative muscles. This is not for everyone. Great people can break through the earth. Steve Jobs never had to take a break. But I do. Procrastination can also be a sure sign that you are a perfectionist. That you are full of shame. This will prevent you from building and selling your business. Examine your procrastination from all sides. This body of yours is trying to tell you something. Listen to this.

“Tasklessness”

There is a common myth that great people can effectively perform multiple tasks at the same time. It may be true, but I cannot do it. I have statistical evidence. I have a serious addiction. If you ever speak to me on the phone, there is an almost 100% chance that I am playing chess online at the same time. The phone rings, one hand reaches for the phone and the other hand reaches for the computer to start a one-minute game. Chess ratings are based on a statistical rating system. So I can easily compare how good I feel when I’m on the phone versus when I’m not on the phone. The difference is three standard deviations.

Imagine if I was on the phone while driving. Or replying to emails. I’m assuming the same thing: phone calls involve subtracting three standard deviations of intelligence. And that’s the basic multitasking that we all do at some point.

So great people can do multiple tasks at once, but since by definition most of us are not great (99% of us are not in the top 1%), it is much better to single-task. Just do one thing at a time. When you wash your hands, hear the sound of water, feel the water on your hands, rub each part. Be clean. Focus on what you are doing.

Often, a successful mediocre entrepreneur must strive for excellence in a ZERO solution. Nothing to do. It always seems to us that we have to “do something” or we (or, I would say, “I”) feel ashamed. Sometimes it’s better to just keep quiet, not think about anything. The greatest creativity is born out of silence. Not when we are in a hurry and panic.

Refusal

As far as I can tell, Larry Page has never failed. He went straight from graduate school for billions. The same goes for Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and a few others. But then again, by definition, most of us are pretty mediocre. We can strive for greatness, but we will never achieve it. This means that we will often fail. DO NOT ALWAYS fail. But often.

My last 16 out of 17 business attempts were unsuccessful. I made so many mistakes in my first successful business that I am almost ashamed to list them.

I remember one time I tried to convince Tupac’s mom to make a website for her dead son. I had a “CD” (what is this?) With all my works. I went to manager Tupac’s office and he said, “Okay, show me what you have.” The only problem was that I have never used a windows based machine. Mac and Unix computers only. So I honestly had no idea how to insert my CD into a computer and then view its contents. And I went to graduate school in computer science. He said, “You must be kidding me.”

It was a $ 90,000 concert. This would secure my salary for at least two months. The deed was done until I entered his office. I left his office in tears, and he laughed. When I returned to my office, everyone asked, “How was the meeting?” I said, “I think everything went well.” And then I went home and cried a little more. I’m rolling that way.

Then I bought myself a Windows computer and learned how to use it. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a Mac again. You can learn from success. But failure is a lot easier to learn from. After all, life is a verdict of failure punctuated by only the smallest of successes.

In this way, the mediocre entrepreneur learns from failure: First, he learns directly how to overcome that particular failure. He is very motivated not to repeat the same mistakes. Second, he learns to cope with the psychology of failure. Mediocre entrepreneurs fail VERY. So they get this incredible skill to deal really well with failure. This means monetary success.

The mediocre entrepreneur understands that perseverance is not a self-help cliche: “Keep walking until you get to the finish line!” Key slogan: “Keep failing until you accidentally stop failing.” This is persistence. (Never let you down.)

Unoriginality

I never had an original idea in my life. My first successful business was creating software, strategies, and websites for Fortune 500 companies. Not an original idea, but back in the 90s, people paid exorbitant fees for such a business. All my successful investments came from situations where I made sure the CEOs and other investors were smarter than me.

100% of my zeros as a business angel came from situations where I considered myself smart. I was not. I’m mediocre. The best ideas are when you take two old ideas that have nothing to do with each other, make them have sex with each other, and then build your business around that bastard, ugly kid. A child who was so ugly that no one else wanted to touch him. Look at Facebook: Combine the Internet with Harassment. Amazing!

And by the way, this was about the fifth attempt to create such a social network. Twitter: Combine the Internet with legacy SMS protocols. Ugly! But it works. Ebay, combine e-commerce with auctions. Song “I’m Be There”: Combine Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson. If Justin Bieber sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” it would be a huge hit. I might even listen to it.

Bad network

I’m that guy. You know someone who doesn’t talk to anyone at a party and is standing in the corner. I never go to technical meetings. I usually refuse very nice networking dinner invitations. I love to sit at home and read. When I was running a business, I was often embarrassed to talk to my employees. I called my secretary downstairs and asked if the corridor was free, then I asked her to unlock my door, and I hurried upstairs and locked the door behind me. This particular company has crashed.

But many people communicate too much. Entrepreneurship is difficult enough. That’s 20 hours a day for employee, customer, meeting and product development management. And the dollar stops here. And then what are you going to do? Networking all night? Leave that to great entrepreneurs. Or those who are about to fail. The mediocre entrepreneur works his 20 hours and then relaxes when he can. Making money is difficult. Not a party.

Do anything to get a “yes”

Here are the negotiations that I had. I was running Stockpickr! Your source of stock ideas and meeting with the CEO of the stock market – business news, market data, stock analysis – TheStreet . He wanted his company to receive a percentage of Stockpikr, and in return, he would fill our entire ad inventory. I was thrilled with the deal. I said, “Okay, I thought you were going to get 10% of the company.”

He laughed and said, “No. 50% “. He didn’t even say, “We would like 50%.” He simply said, “50%.” Then I used all my negotiating skills and came up with an answer. “Good. Hand over.”

I am a salesperson. I like it when people say yes to me. I feel insecure when they say no, or worse, if they don’t like me. When I started a website company, we tried to create Miramax . I said $ 50,000. They said, “Not more than $ 1,000, and that’s a stretch.” I used my usual trick: “Do it!”

But the bottom line: In one case, the stock market – business news, market data, stock analysis – TheStreet had a significant stake, so it gave them more psychological stake. And for my first business, Miramax was now on my client list. So Con Edison had to pay a lot more. I am a mediocre salesperson and probably a poor negotiator, although I try to learn from the best.

But as a consequence, I get more trades, I get a random loss leader, and then eventually the big fish gets trapped if I have enough people who say yes. It’s like asking everyone on the street to go on a date with you. One in 100 will say yes. In my case, it may be one in a million, but you get the idea.

Bad judge about people

The mediocre entrepreneur does not ” blink ” in the understanding of Malcolm Gladwell. In Gladwell’s book, he often talks about people who can judge quickly and correctly in two to three seconds. My first judgment when I meet or even see people is this: I hate you. And then I deviate from that to being too gullible. Finally, after bouncing back and forth, and through a lot of trial and error, I find myself somewhere in the middle. I also dump people I can’t trust very quickly. I think a great entrepreneur can jump to conclusions and be great at it. But it doesn’t work for most people.

At this stage, when I meet someone, I try not to trust my first instincts. I get to know people more. I understand what their motives are. I try to sympathize with their position. I listen to them. I try not to argue or gossip about them until I know something. I spend a lot more time getting to know the people I want to bond with. I have to do this because I am mediocre and risk getting the wrong people into my circle.

So, by the time I decided to be around someone: a client, an employee, a customer, an acquirer, a wife, and so on, I was working hard to think about them. This means I can’t waste time thinking about other things, like how to send a rocket to Jupiter. But overall it worked.

“I thought being mediocre was bad?” you might think. Shouldn’t we strive for greatness. And the answer is: “Of course you do! But let’s not forget that 9 out of 10 drivers think their driving skills are ‘above average’. “

People overestimate themselves. Don’t let overpricing become fabulously wealthy, or at least successful enough to have freedom, feed your family, and enjoy other things in life.

Or, at the very least, don’t let your own judgment get in the way of your well-being. Mediocrity doesn’t mean you won’t change the world. It means being honest with yourself and the people around you. And being honest at all levels is truly the most effective habit of all if you want to be hugely successful.

This answer has been edited for clarity.

How can I break down the walls of mediocrity? originally appeared on Quora . You can follow Quora on Twitter , Facebook, and Google+ .