If You Want to be Excellent, be Prepared to be Unpopular

No one likes the overachiever. Why? Because he/she makes the rest of us look bad–or just shines a light to make apparent what we are. Remember the head of the class, the straight-A student, who doubled as the “teacher’s pet?” If you were not making fun of that person, you probably were that person. If you thought that just because you graduated from high school, people were going to magically mature, and everything would finally be right in the world, you have likely found that you were highly mistaken. After all, with the exception of a few, adulthood is fiction. People grow older. People don’t grow up.

But what is popularity, really? “Regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general” is one definition found in a dictionary. Recognition and likability amongst one’s peers, is how I would think to define it. But if you step back far enough to take a panoramic shot of who these people, these peers are, how many of them would you say are excellent at anything of value? None? Yes, let’s go with none. None at least in your critics corner. After all, why did those former classmates call the straight-A student a “teacher’s pet?” Because they were mediocre, while their target of ridicule was not. So, decide which you want, excellence & despised, or popularity & mediocrity. Unless you’re a celebrity or professional athlete, you can hardly have both, and popularity doesn’t make non-celebrities successful.