Measurement Error

There are probably many widespread misconceptions about excellence, but I will just address two of those here this week. The first of these fallacies is that excellence can be measured along the yardstick of average.

This may stem from the classroom and good ol’ standardized tests. If you score a 50, you fail, but if you do a little better and score a 70, you are average. If you do a little bit better still, you score a 90 and are rewarded an A for your excellence. But life isn’t a standardized test. And it can’t be simplified into a nifty little bell curve with a crowded middle and thin tails. Average and excellence are rarely separated by incremental improvement. They are often worlds apart and can sometimes not even be described in the same terms.

An excellent basketball player isn’t just slightly better or even twice as good as an average player. In fact, they don’t even let them play together on the same court. That is why they have professionals who play on TV for millions of dollars while middle-aged fathers play in smelly rec centers in front of approximately no one. Same goes for a concert-level pianist: their talent level isn’t even comparable to the average musician, pounding away on the keys while his family puts on noise-canceling headphones. Both experts are immeasurably more talented and skilled than you or I in their chosen craft. However, we forget that fact when that NBA star or renowned pianist is surrounded by his or her peers – who are also excellent – and thus the talent of the star seems only incrementally better.

When we measure things off average rather than off excellence, we set the bar too low and often let ourselves off too easily. We don’t have to look far to find average workers, average parents, average spouses, average whatever, and feel pretty good about ourselves. We try to be just a little bit better. But what we get is just a variation of average and end up still stuck in the crowded, messy middle of the convenient bell curve.

When something is vitally important, don’t measure it with the yardstick of average. Measure against excellence. You will get a more accurate reading.

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