Im ashamed to admit it.
Im not even being sarcastic or self-deprecating.
Ive never done anything that stands out as, whoa!
This guy made it into outerspace!
Or… this guy has a best selling novel!
Or… if only Google had thought of this!
Always slipped off along the way, off the yellow brick road, into the wilderness.
Ive started a bunch of companies.
Ive invested in a bunch of startups.
Failed at some, and the jury is still sequestered on a few others.
Ive written some books, most of which I no longer like.
That said, all people should be so lucky.
We cant all be grand visionaries.
We cant all be Picassos.
For every Mark Zuckerberg there are 1000 Jack Zuckermans.
Who is Jack Zuckerman?
I have no idea.
If you are Jack Zuckerman and are reading this, I apologize.
You aimed for the stars and missed.
My king and my queen got forked by a knight.
But hey, that happens.
Fork me once, shame on me, etc.
At that time, I went out on a date.
have a go at figure out why you are procrastinating.
Maybe it’s crucial that you brainstorm more to improve an idea.
Maybe the idea is no good as is.
Maybe you better delegate.
Maybe you better learn more.
Maybe you dont enjoy what you are doing.
Maybe you dont like the client whose project you were just working on.
Maybe you oughta take a break.
This is not for everyone.
Great people can storm right through.
Steve Jobs never needed to take a break.
Procrastination could also be a strong sign that you are a perfectionist.
That you are filled with shame issues.
This will block you from building and selling your business.
Examine your procrastination from every side.
Its your body trying to tell you something.
Zero-Tasking
Theres a common myth that great people can multitask efficiently.
This might be true but I cant do it.
I have statistical proof.
I have a serious addiction.
Chess rankings are based on a statistically generated rating system.
There is a three standard deviation difference.
Imagine if I were talking on the phone and driving.
Or responding to emails.
Its the same thing Im assuming: phone calls cause a three standard deviation subtraction in intelligence.
And thats the basic multi-tasking we all do at some point or other.
Just do one thing at a time.
Focus on what you are doing.
Often, the successful mediocre entrepreneur should strive for excellence in ZERO-tasking.
Sometimes its better to just be quiet, to not think of anything at all.
Out of silence comes the greatest creativity.
Not when we are rushing and panicking.
Failure
As far as I can tell, Larry Page has never failed.
He went straight from graduate school to billions.
Ditto for Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and a few others.
But again, by definition, most of us are pretty mediocre.
We can strive for greatness but we will never hit it.
So it means we will often fail.
My last 16 out of 17 business attemptswere failures.
I made so many mistakes in my first successful business Im almost embarrassed to recount them.
I had a CD (whats that?)
of all my work.
I went to Tupacs managers office and he said, ok, show me what you got.
The only problem was: I had never used a Windows-based machine.
Only Macs and Unix machines.
So I honestly had no idea how to put my CD into the computer and then view its contents.
And I had gone to graduate school in computer science.
He said, you have got to be kidding me.
It was a $90,000 gig.
It wouldve met my payroll for at least two months.
It was a done deal until I walked into his office.
I left his office crying while he was laughing.
When I came back to my office everyone asked, How did the meeting go?
I said, I think it went pretty well.
And then I went home and cried some more.
I roll that way.
Then I bought a Windows-based PC for myself and learned how to use it.
I dont think I ever bought a Mac again actually.
Its possible to learn from successes.
But its much easier to learn from failures.
Ultimately, life is a sentence of failures, punctuated only by the briefest of successes.
Hes highly motivated to not repeat the same mistakes.
Second, he learns how to deal with the psychology of failure.
Mediocre entrepreneurs fail A LOT.
So they get this incredible skill of getting really good at dealing with failure.
This translates to monetary success.
The key slogan is, Keep failing until you accidentally no longer fail.
(Has never failed.)
Being Unoriginal
Ive never come up with an original idea in my life.
My first successful business was making web software, strategies, websites for Fortune 500 companies.
My successful investments all involved situations where I made sure the CEOs and other investors were smarter than me.
100% of my zeros as an angel investor were situations where I thought I was smart.
The child that was so ugly nobody else wanted to touch it.
Look at Facebook: combine the internet with stalking.
And, by the way, it was about the fifth attempt at such a social online grid.
Twitter: combine internet with antiquated SMS protocols.
Ebay, combine ecommerce with auctions.
The song, Ill Be There: combine Mariah Carey with Michael Jackson.
If Justin Bieber sang John Lennons Imagine it would be a huge hit.
I might even listen to it.
Poor Networking
Im that guy.
You know the one at the party that doesnt talk to anyone and stands in the corner.
I never go to tech meetups.
I usually say no to very nice networking dinner invitations.
I like to stay home and read.
When I was running businesses I was often too shy to talk to my employees.
That particular companyfailed disastrously.
But many people web connection too much.
Entrepreneurship is hard enough.
Its 20 hours a day of managing employees, customers, meetings, and product development.
And the buck stops here sort of thing.
And then what are you going to do?
Save that for the great entrepreneurs.
Or the ones who are about to fail.
The mediocre entrepreneur works his 20 hours, then relaxes when he can.
Its tough to make money.
Doing Anything to Get a Yes
Heres a negotiation I did.
I was excited to do the deal.
I said, Okay, I was thinking you would get 10% of the company.
He laughed and said, No.
He didnt even say We would like 50%.
He just said, 50%.
I then used all my negotiating skills and came up with a reply.
I like people to say yes to me.
I feel insecure when they so No or, even worse, if they dont like me.
When I started a company doing websites we were pitching to do Miramax.
I said, $50,000.
They said, No more than $1,000 and thats a stretch.
I used my usual technique: Deal!
And for my first businessMiramaxwas now on my client list.
So Con Edison had to pay a lot more.
Im a mediocre salesman and probably apoor negotiatoralthough I venture to learn from the best.
Its like asking every person on the street to go out with you.
One out of 100 will say yes.
In my case it might be one out of a million but you get the idea.
Being a Poor Judge of People
The mediocre entrepreneur doesnt Blink in the Malcolm Gladwell sense.
In Gladwells book he often talks about people who can form snap correct judgements in two or three seconds.
My initial judgement when I meet or even see people is this: I hate you.
And then I veer from that to too trusting.
I also tend to drop people I cant trust very quickly.
I think the great entrepreneur can make snap judgements and be very successful with it.
But that doesnt work for most people.
At this point, when I meet someone, I double-check I specifically dont trust my first instincts.
I get to know people more.
I get to understand what their motivations are.
I give a shot to sympathize with whatever their position is.
I listen to them.
I try not to argue or gossip about them before I know anything.
I spend a lot more time getting to know the people who I want to bring closer.
Ive done a lot of work into thinking about them.
This means I cant waste time thinking about other things, like how to put a rocketship on Jupiter.
But overall its worked.
I thought being mediocre is supposed to be bad?
Shouldnt we strive for greatness.
And the answer is: Of course we should!
But lets not forget that 9 out of 10 drivers think they are above the median in driving skill.
Or at least dont let your own judgments of yourself get in the way of your well-being.
Being mediocre doesnt mean you wont change the world.
It means being honest with yourself and the people around you.
This answer has been edited for clarity.
How can I break the walls of mediocrity?originally appeared onQuora.
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Update: Looks like we previously featuredJames Altuchers article on the site before.
