Mediocrity will be rewarded, while excellence will be punished

We spend all this time building our habits, honing our talents, achieving peak performance, doing remarkable work, taking calculated risks and positioning ourselves into visionary leaders who will take people into the promised land.

And then we show up and realize it’s actually not safe to shine. We live in a world where mediocrity is not only rewarded, it’s demanded.

And unless we melt ourselves down into the collectivist pot of conformity, turning down the volume on our brilliance so that others don’t feel threatened by it, we will be cast out from the tribe and left to die alone in a blizzard.

Excellence will be punished. All those who shine will be judged as heretic and disloyal. Please continue blindly marching in lockstep until further notice.

It’s the mythology of the tall poppy. Thrasybulus kept cutting off all the tallest ears of wheat which he could see, and throwing them away, until he had destroyed the best and richest part of the crop.

Meaning:

If you stand out for your high abilities, enviable qualities and visible success, prepare to be resented, attacked, cut down and criticized. How dare you rise above the pack? That’s antisocial and countercultural. Please go identify something mundane that presents no resistance whatsoever and go with that. Otherwise we have no use for you.

The point is, the joke is on us. Every culture is a conspiracy to convince its members to conform their desires to what is considered right and good.

And unless we want to feel like a voice in the wilderness shouting away with nobody listening, it’s better if we just go easy on the awesomeness.

Will you ever feel relief from the relentless and unrealistic pressure to conform?