I felt today's blog post worth sharing. After all, who wants to settle for mediocre? Be exceptional, and they will pay for it.
"This is Mediocre"
Large organizations seek to decrease variability.
Starbucks wants the very best latte you buy from them to be exactly the same as the worst one.
If you define a spec and work hard to meet it, you can make it so that most things are within a reasonable distance of that spec. Which means that most of what you make is average.
If an entire industry is busy seeking to meet that average, we can define that work as mediocre. Not horrible, but certainly not exceptional (because 'exception' -al is self-explanatory).
When you go out to buy aluminum siding, copywriting or consulting services, you have a choice: You can demand that the work meets the industry spec, a fair product at a fair price. Or, you can seek something better than average, something worth paying extra for.
Most TV ads, most car services, most airplane flights–they're mediocre. That's a choice.
If you want to buy creative work that's exceptional, you'll need to pay for it (and accept the risk that it might not work out as planned).