Mediocrity: “The quality or state of being mediocre”
How would you feel if someone described your writing as mediocre? Hurt? Insulted? Angry?
Originating from the Latin ‘medius’ (meaning ‘middle’) and ‘ocris’ (meaning ‘rugged mountain’), the word mediocre has come to mean middling, ordinary, unexceptional, run-of-the-mill, commonplace, ‘not very good’.
Even at its best, we consider ‘mediocre’ to mean ‘average’. But is being average so terrible? Let’s be honest, how many of us have the time, energy, determination and talent to be brilliant? Isn’t life exhausting enough without having to strive for greatness, too?
What if Good Enough was a Good Thing?
“Beware The Lollipop Of Mediocrity; Lick It Once And You’ll Suck Forever.” Brian Wilson, Beach Boys
What if rather than seeing average as an admission of defeat, we saw it as an acceptable reality? What if accepting mediocrity liberated us from the stresses of thinking we needed to be brilliant? What if Brian Wilson was wrong?
I remember many years ago, back when I was an agency junior copywriter/account exec, my boss asked me if I’d finished some copy I’d been working on for a client. I sheepishly said, “not quite” and he asked how long I’d spent on it already. Ashamed to admit how long I’d actually spent on it, I muttered “a few hours”, he grunted something about “after lunch” and I replaced a full stop with a semicolon.
Commercial reality
Some days later, I was called into his office for a quick update on things. I bounced in and before I’d even taken a seat, I’d rattled off the list of features I’d secured for a couple of clients, a meeting I’d arranged with a journalist, and some ideas I’d had for one of our ‘small but interesting’ clients.
“Stop,” he says. “Sit down. What is ‘small but interesting’ client’s retainer? Couple a thousand a month?”
“Err… bit less,” I say. A lot less, I think. “But they are – ”
“No, they’re not,” he interrupts. He then proceeds to tell me their turnover, gross profits budget versus actuals, ROIs and other stuff I’d no idea about then – and not much more idea about now – and stops with two words: commercial reality.
I open my mouth to say something trite about standards, creativity, best practice, etc. when he shuts me down again and tells me to stop it.
Stop striving for brilliance. Stop doing your best on every single job. Stop spending 8 hours on a 2-hour job – even if you are doing it in your own time. Stop exhausting yourself and bankrupting us. Clients don’t want The Best. They can’t afford The Best. They want Good Enough.
I was horrified. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He was asking me to do a bad job. Well, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t settle for good enough. And if it meant I worked evenings and weekends to do my best, then that’s what I’d do. I’d show him.
Happy clients
What exactly did I show him? Yes, clients loved me. Yes, I wrote well. Yes, I felt a sense of deep satisfaction when I sent clients my draft 22 (their draft 1) and they signed it off with minimal changes.
But I also came home (eventually) and screamed at the family, suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, avoided socialising (that was just something else to worry about) and resented anyone who wasn’t working as hard as me.
Gradually, over the years, as I abandoned ‘unsupportive’ partners and spent a fortune on IBS treatment, I discovered something enlightening. On the rare occasions when there was literally no time for the 23rd rewrite, I’d send a client an early draft. Granted, it was accompanied by the usual apologetic “here’s my first stab, might not be bang on yet but it gives you an idea… blah blah” but it got it off my desk – always an enormous sigh of relief.
And guess what? They liked it. Of course, they did. Yes, there might have been a few tweaks. But it was ‘good enough’. Turned out that what was ‘good enough’ for me was ‘amazing’, ‘love it’, ‘perfect’ for them.
Why do we all strive for perfection?
Whether you’re a freelancer, in-house copywriter or – heavens forbid – both, you’re already working flat out just to keep on top of what NEEDS to be done. Add in that strive for perfection – that 18th draft because maybe the third paragraph should be higher up. Or the ‘but’ should be a ‘however’. Or there’s a more original way to say, ‘opens Saturday 10 June’ – and no wonder we’re reaching for the Buscopan, vodka or both.
Embracing mediocrity doesn’t mean doing things badly, it means not judging yourself. Not comparing everything you do to the one brilliant thing you see others doing. Life is not about being the best at everything. It may not even be about being the best at anything. It’s about us doing the right thing at the right time – for both others and ourselves.
Productive versus busy
Give yourself a break. Accepting commercial reality, settling for the middle ground, could make you more relaxed, more liberated and, as a result, maybe even more productive. Productive – not busy. Never confuse the two.
So, the next time you find yourself re-rewriting that last sentence (as I did just then), abandoning an idea because it came to you too easily, or apologising for not having enough time to do your best work, ask yourself what would have happened if you hadn’t.
Maybe that lollipop of mediocrity tastes good.
My book In Praise of Mediocrity is now available on Amazon.
Photo by Stefan Pflaum on Unsplash
comments ( 0 )