Awww...shucks

I’m feeling a bit bashful about that last post, especially after receiving so many sweet comments and emails from you lovely people. I promise – really I do – that I wasn’t fishing for compliments (nevertheless, I’m terribly grateful for your affectionate responses. I always love hearing from you)! I was mostly interested in the idea of embracing mediocrity as a way to allow myself to try something new. After all, my esteemed colleague from Post-it Notes From Hades reminds me, “Mediocrity is not a sin!”* And it isn’t, especially when you consider how paralyzing perfection can be.

My esteemed colleague also quoted Gilbert and Sullivan in saying, “If everybody’s somebody, then no one’s anybody.” This reminded me of Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, who spoke at my college graduation. As we listened to Mary Robinson drone on for ages (I’m sure she’s a fascinating personality, but I was 21, deeply hung over, and boiling in a plastic convocation robe), my entire graduating class sank deeper and deeper into a coma. Then Bill Weld took the stage and shook things up. I will paraphrase his speech:

“I want to congratulate you all for graduating from this venerable institution.” (Copious back-patting heard throughout the crowd.)

“You’re ranked number one in the country, and for the rest of your life, you can tell everyone you graduated from this glorious place.” (More back-patting and smugness.)

“And that’s a wonderful thing. But you should know something before you go out in the world: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR DIPLOMA. NO ONE CARES IF YOUR PROFESSOR THINKS YOU’RE BRILLIANT.”

(Gasps. Chairs scraping.)

“As soon as you leave this place, you are no one, just like everyone else. This may be a hard lesson to learn, since everyone’s been telling you since you got here that you are the best and the brightest, but the sooner you learn that YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL, the better. Because you’ll see that the world is full of people who want it – whatever “it” is - more than you do – they are willing to work harder, stick their necks out, risk everything. They are hungry and they will trounce you and your wimpy, self-entitled ways. That is, unless YOU GET OVER IT RIGHT NOW.”

And that was pretty much it. When I think about my time in college, this is really the only thing I learned of any value. That, and the following advice:

“Liquor before beer – never fear. Beer before liquor, never sicker.”

Because you really, really need to know that.



*From How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying


Image from The Library of Congress’s brilliant online photography project, The Commons on Flickr. Via Diana:Muse
(the source of all good things).