(see title)

I think Homer Simpson said it best when he said (and I might be paraphrasing a bit here), “No matter how good you are at something, there are always a million people better than you.”

So, when travelling down the highway of Existence, you must be mindful that when you decide to overtake other motorists of Life, there is the chance that someone will have a faster, more powerful car of Opportunity, who will leave you choking on their Success smoke. The trick is to ensure that you keep your eyes on the Life road, or else you may find yourself crashing into the oncoming car of Depression, or into the ditch of Cynicism, and ultimately inhaling the airbag of Therapy.

This isn’t exactly a new revelation for me, in fact, I’ve known this fact for about 10 years, having being beaten at various sports, outclassed in academic pursuits, and looked over for promotions. I guess I’ve had a slightly humbling experience that simply reasserts this notion.

But I’m hardly depressed about it. In fact, my mood seems to be of relative indifference.

I have come to terms with my general mediocrity, and subsequently don’t often lament my failures. However, this hasn’t come at the expense of my determination to succeed, as I’ve also found that success is largely determined by one’s ability to bullshit effectively before then coping with the ensuing expectations. That’s what I believe is Adaptability.

So, I applied for a job, which in turn received 50 other applications. Out of those 50 applications, there were at least 12 people who were better than me (I was short listed to a final 12, according to the panel chair), either through experience, qualification or bullshit factor. Whilst I would love to assume the third, I cannot discount the fact that there is quite a good chance that I simply wasn’t as good as the other applicants.

To also lay blame to the “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” phenomenon is extremely cynical, and ultimately not a beneficial state of mind.

Because to blame any favouritism towards all the other money grubbing, under-talented, thesaurus wielding, opinion regurgitating, humourless, self indulgent, self promoting, two-faced, academic-but-stupidly-naive, pop influenced, Friends wannabe, bright eyed and bushy tailed, young, bad smelling poo-poo heads seems… too easy.

Note: Whilst I did say that I was largely indifferent… I never claimed to be above name-calling. You can be indifferent and immature at the same time, can’t you?

But after watching television, listening to radio, and reading the newspaper it seems that mediocrity isn’t something that should be ignored, but rather applauded. The abundance of reality TV shows, and the subsequent (although perhaps short term) success of the participants in obtaining positions of import is testament to people’s ability to accept everyday Joes into responsible positions normally reserved for people with... well... talent.

So, I must take my mediocrity and find a niche in where is it most appreciated and people have the tolerance to accept it.

Until I find out where that is, I’ll blog...