How to achieve success by being mediocre
Many people set their goals so lofty that they are unattainable. Even small businesses, they don't all set out to be Fortune 500 companies, but many are successful by being among the Fortune 5000 or even 1 million. Instead of setting oneself for failure, we all can achieve some measurable success by going for incremental goals. We don't have to be the best, we can win just by being slightly better than one's competition.
Someone sent me an interesting article a few days ago, it talked about how if we just invest $350 per month, with a compound interest of 8% for 35 years, we can become millionaires in 35 years. Granted, a millionaire in 35 years isn't that big of a deal, but it'll still be better than slaving at a job that one doesn't like. So instead of trying to be rich by scamming one's friends/colleagues/chumps, people can live a relatively comfortable and happy life by setting up a budget with allocation for savings and investments. We don't have to have the millionaire mindset, we just have to be realistic; we have to focus on actions that are doable and goals that are achievable.
When I first started this blog, I just needed a place to vent because of so much insanity and stupidity that I allowed into my life. There were so many that jumped on the blogging bandwagon in the local scene, several thought that they will become some multi-state / international conglomerate by taking over the world, it has been nearly 1.5 years, I think this is the only surviving blog. I don't have to write well or to come up with some grandiose ideas, just with a little bit more passion, persistence, and consistency. My blog has not been about being about the best or better than anyone else, I try to focus on what is probable than what is possible.
Just as I didn't set out to be where I am today professionally, all I did was directing my focus on getting things done, going the distance, and doing what is required. Sure, I was slightly better now and then, but I certainly have never been the winner all the time, just sometimes. I'm sure there are so many that fell by the wayside because their goals were not about themselves but to be better than everyone else, to be the best, by going after others or tearing down others.
This came up in my conversation with a friend last night, he was telling me that he worked at his job for nearly a decade, he is not the CEO, but with his company undergoing downsizing, his job is quite secure while earning a relatively stable and comfortable income. But the friend he went to school with, she has been struggling, hustling for over a decade, she is where she was then. That's the thing about people who aim too high, reach too far, there are countless stories of failure, the only reason we don't ever get to read or hear about them is because we are so obsessed with the few success stories.
Instead of failing to become among the winner, or be among companies that make billions, we can be just as successful AND happy by making millions, or even just a few thousands per month.
1 comment:
Reminds me of the idea of the 'long tail', where you become successful not through selling one massive, mega-insanely-successful product, but through selling many small 'ok' products consistently over a long period of time. I think I first heard of it reading something about the Nintendo DS and how it has stayed as a successful handheld console not through a huge single title but by the many smaller ones all put together.
Like in weight training, you go in and do that little bit better than you did last week and just focus on sticking it out, getting through the rough patches but always trying to be consistent. Then you suddenly look back one day and realise that a whole bunch of tiny microscopic gains have become one big one and you can lift 30 kilos more than when you started.
I don't think the problem with the people you mentioned has a lot to do with them aiming high, per se. I think it's more to do with them wanting to be successful _ RIGHT NOW_, enjoying the rush of what it's like to imagine their success, but not enjoying the hard, consistent and often unrewarding work needed to get there. I've encountered many people like that, these guys that are trying to sell you their 'next biggest thing'. A few months later they've moved onto something else and therein lies the problem.
I know Eddison was supposed to have said something about finding a thousand ways to fail when he was trying to make a lightbulb. But the point was, he never gave up TRYING TO MAKE THE LIGHTBULB. Using this analogy (and I know this Eddison thing gets said a lot around the self-help community), the people you're talking about aren't finding the thousand ways to fail at the one thing before they succeed; they're just failing once at a thousand different things.
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