American Entrepreneurship (The mediocre relief pitcher of busines)

American Entrepreneurship is a bunch of mediocre middle-inning relief baseball pitchers. They made it to the big leagues, they get the praise of "making it", but mostly pitch a couple of days a week, and get to eat free meals (business dinners) and travel (credit card points).

"If I was going to be mediocre I'd be a middle inning relief pitcher in baseball. No Pressure. You can pitch till you are like 45 years old, and make $3 Million a year." - David Chang

This is where the dreams of being the G.O.A.T tend to die. The amount of work to go from run-of-the-mill professional to generational talent is incredibly difficult. More of it comes with timing, and just being at the right place at the right time.

Could Steve Jobs be the visionary he was in today's environment, where the game is different? Who knows?

The modern American online business is stuck in the bullpen, hoping to get a chance to change the outcome. There is nothing wrong with doing the thing you love every day for your career; that's the ultimate goal. But to claim to your friends and the world that you are an all-time great is just an ego trip.

Like baseball, business is a LONG Season. Where a lot of small tweaks and adjustments may not be seen for months down the road. You have to show up every day, do the basics well for long enough, and there will be some sort of payoff, trophy, or award. Seasons change, and competition can get game tape on you, and you constantly need to be building and improving to end up in the Hall of Greats.

Take a step back, and remember that if you are lucky enough to be playing a game you love, you and build a life for yourself and others. That's a true skill of working as hard as we do.

Nothing wrong with being second best, or playing the game you love to make ends meet.

Maybe, I am a bit jealous of those that can wait in the bullpen, and post about things online about how hard Entrepreneurship is. I have had to be the all around utility player for most of my life. I tend to have Range. I am good at many things, trying to be best at all of them at the same time. A generalist doesn't have to be mediocre either. They can be great in any spot that needs it. Thats me.

The following clip lives rent free in my head. Chef David Chang, talking about what mediocrity is.

We tend to remember the greats at a specific brand/company/team. We don't know the middle manager at a massive company/brand/team. We don't know the person who decided to hire them. We miss a lot of details in the story of a team.

We tend to remember the greats from our youth as well. When we had time to watch a baseball game and eat a hot dog.