Your achievements will be average if you compete against the average.
Take an example of marathon runners. To win the run, one must have pace setters strategically positioned within the runners. And they all know each other. You have, A, the key runner (the one who wants to win the race). And you have person B and C, the pace setters. And you have competitors D, E, F, G, H, etc. Only A, B, and C know who is who. The rest of the runners do not know. Runner A will look at his pace setters B and C and keep the pace. The rest of the runners will be taken for the ride. B may sprint and create a gap. Other runners may suddenly drop their strategy of taking it slow and attempt to sprint to catch-up. Only for B to reduce speed and relax. Running is very tricky, runner D who is not aware of the plans B has with A, will suddenly also reduce speed. Unfortunately, the body may find it tough to react to the new pace when runner A comes and over takes. Like in a marathon, you must be careful who you are benchmarking against. If you benchmark on someone whose success was ‘artificial’, you may never make it!
It is not unusual to meet people who have a swagger of success yet are lying to themselves.
Many people are mediocre because they have not been exposed to see how people who are successful enjoy life and behave. Take an example of a village elder. They have a small farm, house and some crops. At village level, they see they are doing well. They have a feeling that they have arrived. Yet they are still doing badly as the impact of their achievements on the community is not felt.
One way of defining success is in terms of community or social impact. Attaining success is about the impact you bring to the community. Who are you winning with? At a country level, it is may not be good to say a country is successful when majority of her people are dying young, illiterate and dying from curable diseases. However great buildings and road network such a country may have, social happiness index and peoples well being is a critical factor to consider as a key success factor.
If you look at the league of nations and want to grow, who would Uganda benchmark against?
