You’re in the 1%

“The worst golfer in town came in last in the club tournament. Actually, that’s not true. The worst golfer didn’t even enter. Well, that’s not true either. The worst golfer doesn’t even play.”
–Seth Godin, in this blog

Seth Godin has long been one of my favorite writers and teachers. His book Linchpin changed my outlook on working with clients. His daily blogging inspired mine in 2018. I modeled the Creative Consistency Challenge after his workshops. 

Godin constantly impresses me with his ability to make a strong point in so few words. This blog hit me like a brick when I read it. It only took him 33 words to do it. 

As creators and artists, we compare our work to our inspirations’. Naturally, we’re not as good. This leads us to believe that we might just be the worst version of whatever it is we’re doing. We definitely know we’re not the best. But do you know who’s worse than you? The billions of people who have never even tried. In fact, by trying something once, you’re better than most. By doing it for a few weeks, you gain a ton of experience, relatively speaking. If you do it for a year, you just might be in the top 1% globally. 

How good do you have to be at something in order to keep going? Do you have to be in the top 1%? If everybody thought that way, we’d have a lot fewer restaurants, doctors, and other stuff we really need. Your work is important, even if it’s not ground-breaking. Keep going.