- Victor Ochieng’ challenges readers to reject average performance and deliberately develop their abilities to the fullest.
- He draws lessons from the Awori family and leadership books that emphasise discipline, growth and continuous self-improvement.
- Ochieng’ argues that education, success and talent lose meaning when people become comfortable and stop stretching themselves.
As a wordsmith, I decided to sit and weld these words. Just to challenge all and sundry to rise above clouds of mediocrity. On this, there is a heroic book I thought about. So, I have dragged it into this writ. In retrospect, I read it avidly in my February 2025 regular reading ritual. It is titled Seizing the Moment: The Amazing Story of the Awori Family by Horace Awori and Kondia Wachira. It is a book I highly recommend to those who love and cherish reading. For it talks about how a single family of Canon Yeremiah Awori, a great leader among pioneer Anglican Reverends, produced plenty of professionals: Lawyers, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, doctors, scholars, diplomats, teachers, journalists, et cetera. It is the successful family that produced Aggrey Awori that nearly became the Ugandan President in 2001. There is Moody Awori that served as Funyula Member of Parliament for 25 years. Then, the 9th Vice President of Kenya in August 2003 after death of Kijana Wamalwa. As an educationist, I cannot fail to mention Mary Awori Okello that started Makini School on Ngong Road, in Nairobi.
Most importantly, when you are chanced to read pages 112-117 of that page-turner, there is the captivating Chapter 17 titled Awori as a Father, a careful chronicle of how Canon Awori set high standards for his children. Winifred Odera, for instance, reminisces, the day she arrived home brandishing the end of the term report, showing that she had attained position 2 in her class. Of course, she expected some effusive praise and plenty of plaudits from the dad. Instead, dad was sad. Dad told the lass not to be glad for being position 2 when in actual sense she had the wherewithal to be position 1 in that class. So, when the girl went back to school, she toiled and moiled. Put more effort. At the end of the term, she became position 1. She walked home head held high. But after felicitation, the dad still told the daughter, the performance was good, but warned her not to become complacent. But manifest at her best. For it is possible to become position 1 in a class of low achievers.
So, the story gives us basis of this thesis. Of rising above clouds of mediocrity. Mediocrity is an average life. Mediocrity is to commit the greatest crime against self, people, and God. Therefore, the saddest epitaph haply reads: “Here lies Mr. Average. Here rests the remains of what might have been, except for his belief that he was only average.” So, mediocre means being insignificant. Or refusing to operate at one’s ultimate best. In Be Inspired Before You Expire, Pepe Minambo pens: “Mediocrity is the anthem of the norm. Mediocrity is the heartbeat of the ordinary.” It is shell-shocking to see people with great potential, best brains, and excellent talents – living averagely, stuck like a truck in the mad mud of mediocrity. Meaning, unless something phenomenal happens, such people end up dying average deaths, receiving average send-offs in average cemeteries. Then, mediocrity is what some people accept and cite to be when their kith and kin ask them why they have not been able to access success in some spheres of life. So, in An Enemy Called Average, John Masson writes: “Mediocrity is the region of our lives bounded on the north by compromise; on the south by indecision; on the east by past thinking, and on the west by lack of vision.”
Withal, mediocrity is to be on top of the bottom. Mediocrity is to be at the bottom of the top. Mediocrity is to be first among the last. Mediocrity is to be the worst of the best. Mediocrity is accepting to be good yet you can be great. Ideally, while putting my act together to weave these wise words, I also thought about another book I read in my 2023 reading ritual and routine. The tome is titled Good to Great by Jim Collins, who is also the author of an unputdownable book titled Built to Last. In the former text, he compels people not to settle for good, when they can actually crane their necks and become great. He pens: “Good is the enemy of great. Somehow, it is why we have so little that become great. We have sheer shortage of great schools, simply because we have good schools. We do not have great governments, principally because we have good governments. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good — and that is the main problem.”
Moreover, being mediocre is the lazy person’s best excuse. Mediocrity is lacking the guts and gusto to take some stand in life. Mediocrity is living by default. Mediocrity is refusing to go the extra mile. Mediocrity is taking up space on earth for no purpose — reason of existence. Mediocrity is taking the trip through life, but never paying the fare. Mediocrity is returning no interest for God’s great and vast investment in you. Consequently, mediocrity is passing one’s life away with time, rather than to pass one’s time away with life. Mediocrity is killing time, instead of working it to death. Mediocrity is disappearing completely on earth once you pass on. We remember some people for their contributions. Then, we remember others because they just tried or cried. Actually, the average, the silent majority, are just like wisps of whistling wind. They bomb into oblivion like joking clouds that scud near like dear lover. Or high in the sky.
Advisedly, in a great text titled The 15 Laws of Invaluable Growth, there is a law John C. Maxwell calls The Law of the Rubber Band. The oeuvre of the law avers that growth stops when we lose the tension between where we are, and where we can be. Rubber bands are useful when they stretch. It is also true to human beings that accept to be supple. In actual sense, God’s gift to us is potential, but our gift to God is developing it. Therefore, we should move from our comfort zones and get to capacity zones. We must strive to stretch not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. For life begins at the end of our comfort zones. We see beyond the sea, and seize new horizons by standing, working, walking and stretching. Just to be blunt about it: Nobody admires mediocre men and women.
By the same token, blue-chip companies do not reward average people with some handsome income. Those who are able to rise above scudding clouds of mediocrity replace most average people. No wonder, the deft management expert, Peter Drucker observed, “The greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success is today’s success. The afterglow of success. Embers of fire. No one has ever made a significant impact after they won the Nobel Prize.” Yesterday’s fire is today’s ashes. So, in case you accessed success yesterday, do not accept to settle for less by being complacent. Nothing succeeds like success. One form of success should inspire you to do more, dream more, learn more, and become more. Then, you will be influential in your field. Lending credence to wise words of the 6th President of the United States (POTUS), John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), “If your actions can inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
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Lastly, it is mediocrity to go back to school for another degree just for the sake of a certificate, career progression, promotion, position, lofty levels, pride, prestige. Or just for ostentation and show off. For to confuse education with schooling is mediocrity at its best.
By Victor Ochieng’
Victor Ochieng’ rolls out talks and training services. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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