If one is trying to achieve excellence in something, first you need to know what that is, exactly.
I can tell you all about excellence in say, drawing and communication, but I couldn’t tell you anything about computer programming, being a stockbroker or the hard sciences.
In other words, excellence doesn’t scale. You cannot excel at everything, you can only excel at one or two things. Hence why professional football players tend not to win Nobel Prizes.
Secondly, it stands to reason that if one wants to avoid mediocrity, one should have a good idea of what that entails, as well.
So what is the definition of mediocrity? That depends on who you ask, but the way I put it is:
“People who gave up, when they didn’t have to.”
If that’s not worth being allergic to, I don’t know what is.
