No one would like to develop himself as an aspiring mediocre. Would anyone? Yes. May be. Unknowingly. Read the story below to learn how.
Background
There was a group of college friends – Anders, Peter, Brandon, Rob and Laura – running a music band.Each friend had different skills. Peter was the music director. Anders was a keyboard player, Brandon was a drum master, Rob was a guitar player and Laura was good at playing flute.
They were outstanding in their skill area. That’s the reason their music was very popular. They happen to be the winner of the music competition held in the Summer Carnival for last 2 years. They all were working very hard for the upcoming Summer Carnival which was due in about a month.
Change of circumstances
Peter’s family was shifting to another city so he had no choice but to leave the band. And the band was in a soup. Everyone knew that the band would not be able to perform at its best without Peter’s direction. They did not have any clue about what to do next.The decision
Someone suggested them to form a committee and take an opinion. So they invited few wise individuals and formed a committee.Committee members were good in their respective areas but no one had an actual experience about how a music band should function. After analyzing the situation, the committee decided that everyone should learn every other instrument as Peter, the director was no more available. The committee believed that if everyone knows all other instruments then they will be able to understand other’s part and they wouldn’t need much direction to perform well.
The practice
Anders was excellent in keyboard and getting A’s but when it came to playing drums he was getting C’s. In guitar he wasn’t that bad as he was getting B’s. Playing flute was also not working for him because he was getting D’s there. So the committee advised him to work hard on playing drums and flute. He had to borrow some time from keyboard practice to invest it in learning drums and flute.The committee observed his progress and appreciated him time to time to keep him motivated. Anders was also happy with his progress as now he started getting B’s in drums also. Happier as he was unaware that his handle on keyboard was no more a reality.
The same was the case with other members also. So everyone started practicing harder, getting appreciation from the committee and started learning every other music instruments. At the end of practice days, they learned all the other instruments but could not practice well in their original skill area.
The performance
They did not even realize that their performance was mediocre until they heard people criticizing their performance badly in the Summer Carnival.Here’s what happened:
- They learnt some new things about playing different music instruments.
- In achieving that, they lost their edge in their original skills and were no more competitive.
…and they were thrown out of the competition.
Photo Credit: deargdoom57′s Flickr photostreamThe sad end
Six months later, Peter came back to meet his friends and let them know that he has established a new band in the new city.But he found out that the band had been closed down and the friends are scattered and playing music is no more an exciting thing to them. They all parted ways and were busy doing something else (read “something mediocre” here) to live their lives.
Some small scale software companies also act like that committee. They instruct their people to work for many job profiles at once. For example, they expect their project managers to write code, create architectures, test the application or write SRS documents.
They expect them to be super-humans who can do everything just well. They are genuine and pay such a person more pay than his market value.
Now think about this, before 3 years you were good at analyzing the systems and performing really well as a systems analyst but then you were pulled into application testing and project management. You were asked if you need promotion and good pay hike, take up more responsibilities in diverse areas. So you started putting efforts in different areas including the one which you didn’t like much or you were not good at. Pity was that when you did little well in such areas, you were appraised and rewarded for your “hard” work.
Such companies are like the committee who appreciate you for your achievements in the areas which don’t matter in the end. May be they also don’t know how the music band should function!
At the time of the ‘Summer Carnival’ of your life, when you are expected to perform at your best, you will not be able to. Just because your focus is diversified in different areas and you haven’t realized it till now.
So you’re mediocre in all that you do. You do things which don’t matter, you don’t possess expertise in any single area and you have been turned into an aspiring mediocre. You are just another technology profile who can be easily replaced with one or more people at any given time.
Choice is yours. For the sake of few bucks offered by such companies, do you want to lose focus from what you are good at? Shiv Khera said in his popular book You Can Win, “Winners don’t do different things; they do things differently.” You need to understand what exactly is doing things differently. It means doing things in so excellent way no one else can do. Identify what is one thing that you do which no one else can? Is it Project Management? System Analysis? Testing? Whatever it might be, stick to that; do not lose focus.
Then recognize whether your company’s business models are allowing you to reach your full potential. Does your company have the vision to take you where your full potential can be utilized? If yes, get aligned and build your fortune with your company. If no, find another company (or create your own) where you can get a vision to get aligned to reach your full potential.
Or forget about successful career in the software industry and do the same mediocre things to become jack of all and master of none.
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