you're average, now what

Summary

Andrew Carnegie has a famous speech where he tells college students that being above average compared to the general population is meaningless. the bar is being above average for your peer group, your industry, your team. that’s where the gain happens.

1. measure against your league. the general population is most people, and most people aren’t trying. clearing that bar is not impressive. clearing the bar in your specific field is the actual game.

2. my own example, ENJJPT, the EuroNATO joint jet pilot training. I was a pretty good pilot in college. I showed up to ENJJPT and I was below average. the peer group was every top of class pilot from every NATO country. the bar moved 10x overnight. that’s the point.

3. when you join a new team, a new market, a new league, reset. you start over at average inside it. the work is to push back above the line inside the new context.

4. then go find a better team. when you’re consistently above average where you are, the next move is up. better peers raise your ceiling automatically because the average rises around you.

5. comfort wants you to stay where you’re already above average. that’s how growth dies. seek up. try harder.

Transcript

intro

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. Question, are you average? Let’s talk about it. Before we do, make sure you go sign up for the try harder newsletter. You can go to jerred.com, J E R E D.com. Sign up for the newsletter. We’d love to have you there as I’m pumping out more content each and every single week.

Now we’re going to be talking about whether or not you are average. Most people don’t think of themselves as average. So let’s really break it down and talk about whether or not you are above average, average or below average. I’m going to start by jumping into a speech by Andrew Carnegie. And if you listen to the podcast for any amount of time, Andrew Carnegie is one of my favorite men of business.

understanding andrew carnegie’s philosophy

One of my favorite titans of industry, if you will. He did a lot of cool things with philanthropy. He talks a lot about effort and focus. And in this speech, he’s giving to young college students. And in this portion of the speech, he’s talking about the secret of success. So I’m going to read a small excerpt and then we can break it down a little bit more.

So he says, it is a simple matter of honest work, ability and concentration. There is no question about there being room at the top for exceptional men in any profession. These have not to seek patronage. The question is rather, how can their services be secured as with every profession? So in every line of business, there is plenty of room at the top.

Your problem is how to get there. The answer is simple. Conduct your business with just a little more ability than the average man in your line. If you are only above the average, your success is secured and the degree of success is in ratio to the greater degree of ability and attention which you give above the average.

why being above the general average isn’t enough

There are always a few in business who stand near the top, but there are always an infinitely greater number at and near the bottom. And should you fail to ascend, the fault is not in your stars, but in yourselves. And I love how much, how easily, how simple Andrew Carnegie breaks things down. If you really read his speeches and things that he talks about, he talks about, like I said, focusing on one thing.

There’s pages and pages and I’ll get into that in another podcast of him just talking about, hey, don’t scatter your effort. Don’t try to focus on too many businesses at once. You can’t do that. And he also talks about this idea of average being above average. And he’s really pointing out that it’s not that hard.

If you have the average among you, you need to be slightly better than average and you will have more success. It really is that simple. But now let’s break it down to whether or not you are average. Because when we talk about, hey, are you average or above average? You might be thinking like, okay, well, let’s just, let’s just take an American citizen.

defining average based on your line of work

If you take me versus the American, average American citizen in any capacity, let’s, let’s say fitness, finance, business, whatever. I would be above average, right? That’s great. Should I be happy with that? Absolutely not. He specifically says the men in your line, you need to have a ability. Let’s see what he says, conduct your business with just a little more ability than the average man in your line.

I think that in your line needs to be highlighted, double underlined, circled, because that’s what matters. Now we’re talking about the people in your field, your peers, the people around you. That’s a different ballgame. Who cares if you’re better than average compared to hundreds of millions of people?

Go pat yourself on the back all day for that. But once you join a team, even if you’re an employee, you’re on a team, where would you say you are in that team? If you’re on a high performing team, you might just be an average member of that team. You may have always thought of yourself of as above average in a lot of capacities, but now that you’re on a new team, you might just be the average.

are you really above average? a humbling exercise

So you should be striving on this new team to be above average. Same with me. I’m part of groups and masterminds and coaching groups that the average is everyone’s far above average, right? When it comes to the average American citizen. But I want to be slightly above average in that group amongst these peers, like in our mastermind group that we have at Physical Therapy Biz.

If you’re part of that group, you’re a part of a lot of heavy hitters, badass business owners. You can be average there, but you’re at a new level now. You might be making plenty of money doing really well in business, but are you above average compared to the group that you’re in now? When I was selected for pilot training, I was a part of EuroNATO Joint Jet Pilot Training.

It’s a very hard organization to get into. To get into the organization, I had to be well above average in my peers, amongst my peers for selection to get selected. But once I was there, that doesn’t matter anymore. Now I have all these people in my class who were all above average to get there. Now I want to be slightly above average compared to that new group.

how to strive for the new level of average

So hopefully this is sinking in. And maybe you’re realizing that, oh crap, I have been above average in the past, but I might just be average now based off of who I hang out with, based off of my friends or based off of the people in my line. So when you start to look about it, look at it that way, would you consider yourself below average, average, or above average?

When you really start thinking about who you should be comparing yourselves to. Now I don’t want to get into the comparison is the thief of joy. Like I get it. I’m not trying to say this person has more than me and I’m going to be all sad and depressed about it. Forget all that crap. Just try to be better, right?

Take five people, people who, if you don’t have a peer group, make one, like select one, build one, have a peer group of badasses. Maybe it’s a team. Maybe you’re a part of a team already. Maybe you have business partners. Maybe you have like a mastermind group you can join, but that should be your new average.

the importance of finding the right peer group

And again, you’re not comparing yourself to rob yourself of joy, but you’re like, wow, this is the new standard that I’m a part of. Everybody’s working out every, every day. Everybody’s focused on their family. Everybody’s crushing it in business. How do I be slightly better than average in this new team or a group that I’m a part of?

And if you’re constantly looking for better peers, better groups, or you just have a group of peers who are also like you, who are all getting better, you’re just going to all constantly level up all constantly being better than average, but you can’t ever think, Hey, I’ve gotten this far. I’m so far ahead of average.

I’ll just stop. I’ll just stop. Maybe everyone will catch up and maybe nobody ever will catch up. If you have that mindset, you’re falling behind. You need to always be striving, always trying to get better and you need to find the people who are going to get you there. And if that’s too hard for you to find the right people, find the right group, well, I got two words for you.

Try harder.