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The Age of Mediocrity

By Breanna Simon-Seibel, 11/01/19, 5:15PM CDT

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Kids don’t grow up dreaming of becoming mediocre

Kids don’t grow up dreaming of becoming mediocre…so why are we molding them into mediocre citizens?

If your boss told you that you didn’t have to show up early, didn’t need to put in extra work and didn’t need to produce but you would still get the same raise as everyone else at the end of the year, what would happen?

Would you show up early? Probably not.

Would you put in extra work? No.

Would you push to meet your production goals? Unlikely.

It’s likely that you would become one of many mediocre employees. Your boss would have a population of employees that do just enough to get by. My guess is that whatever company you’re working at will fail miserably within the first year.

Are mediocre employees good for business? Does mediocrity lead to success? If you’re an average person you end up at an average job with an average income and you live an average life. You’re not unhappy but you’re not happy either. You don’t feel like you’ve reached your fullest potential and maybe you feel like you could be so much more. How does that sound to you?

Most of you are probably thinking something along the lines of “Yikes!” and maybe some of you are thinking “Ouch, that one hurts the ego a bit.”

Kids grow up dreaming about being successful. They dream about becoming doctors, teachers, actors, singers, policemen and professional athletes. Kids dream about accomplishing great things. We are doing them a disservice by not teaching them that hard work and dedication is necessary to get where they want to be.

If every kid makes the team and every kid gets a trophy, why should any kid go above and beyond? If all kids are given the same and treated the same, why would anyone get to the rink early and stay late? Why would anyone go home and shoot extra pucks? Why would anyone put in effort when they don’t want to? The end reward is the same.

The reality is that kids don’t grow up dreaming of becoming mediocre. So why are we molding them into mediocre citizens?