In praise of mediocrity

Meaning ‘middling, ordinary, unexceptional, run-of-the-mill, commonplace’ or ‘average’, at best’, mediocre isn’t what most of us strive to be in life.

But is being average so terrible? What if Good Enough was a Good Thing? What if being mediocre at loads of things was actually better than being brilliant at a few things?

In my youth, as an out of work actor/ playwright/ director, I had a naïve “how hard can it be” attitude to jobs I needed but didn’t have any qualifications or experience in.

I’ll spare you the embarrassing details. Suffice to say there’s a lot more to face-painting, silver service and choreography than being able to apply a bit of make-up, lay a table or do jazz hands. But I got by. I did okay. The job got done. And I didn’t lose sleep, friends or my sanity.

But… some years later, everything changed. I finally found a lucrative use of my acting and writing skills and bluffed my way into a full-service PR and ad agency as a copywriter/account handler.

Leave a Comment