Article 199 - Mediocrity

An undeniable but often ignored force in business's downfall

Every day I have an objective and my lifelong goal of fighting mediocrity. It hurts me to see how some people do mediocre work and walk away like they have completed a task or reached an accomplishment that is worth mentioning, when action or work performed was insignificant and mediocre at best. However, when it comes to individual’s marketing and sales skills, those are displayed at their best, creating a great shiny cover for poor quality of work completed.
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When mediocre work is presented to someone who can only see what is on the outside – a shiny marketing presentation – the actual work or project which was half-way completed, goes unnoticed, resulting in acceptance of mediocre work as something that everyone in the organization should see and emulate. This, in turn, creates a culture of mediocrity within the organization, because it is something that is much easier to accept for those individuals who are not willing to put in the work required to deliver top quality products and/or services. However, the dangerous side-effects of the culture of mediocrity in the organization are low quality products that are being developed/created, or the services that are being sold to the end-consumers like you and me.

As consumers, we often tend to compare one company to another, or compare similar services provided by different companies searching for the best quality product or service that we can get our hands on at the best price point possible. Therefore, we naturally tend to gravitate towards companies that deliver top quality products and/or services even if we initially must pay little more, knowing that in the long run quality product would save us time and money. The reason why we do so is, because, we would not have to search for something different or potentially better due to us already knowing and trusting that the company with which we already to business with and purchase products and/or services from does not cut corners and places the needs and expectations of their customers first before business goals and revenue expectations. As result, companies that do not engage or support the culture of mediocrity in everything that they do, tend to much better in the long run then those businesses that only see the shiny sales presentations and not focusing their attention on what is really taking place in their business, while at the same time ignoring what their customers are telling them. Such businesses do not stay afloat for too long due to continuously diminishing customer and client base, which eventually leads to the complete loss of customer/client base and revenue generated through payments received from such once happy and loyal consumer groups.

Many will give their time and money to the business that they once liked and were loyal to. However, just like with everything else in life, there comes the time when we realize that company with which we have been doing business does not place our wants and needs first, resulting in the reduction of the quality of products and services created. At that point of realization, we take our business and money somewhere else, where we know that we will receive the top-quality products and services from the business that understands its customers and values the trust that they have placed in them.