Motivation

When the mood takes me I like to delve into videos and tapes on motivation, the kind that wake the inner go-getter, athlete or start-up guru from their slumber, plunging them into a pool of energetic wizards of potential. All sounds very tiring.

The premise of all these videos is that your inner dialogue of "you can change the world" is inherent in every single being on the planet. Naturally this is what everyone aspiring to greatness wants to hear. All you have to do is try, put in the effort! Everyone is packed with limitless potential! Everyone, even you, sitting their in your pajamas scouring the internet for something to read...even you. Potentially, even me.

Essentially we all believe we are transient and happy for better things, yet not everyone is destined for greatness.

What happens though if you dont have potential? What if your potential energy is exactly zero, what then? What if you are destined not for greatness or a game changing theory or an Apple-esque design, but instead your potential, the best you can ever achieve, is mediocrity? Instead of running Google, perhaps your potential is to work at Google. Even that may be too far of a stretch, so lets change it to something drastic. Perhaps instead of running the company, the best you could ever achieve is perhaps a lower to middling management position? 

Potential is art is often depicted as a mystical or even predatory animal: a jaguar; a dragon or lion; powerful, cunning, intelligent, a lone-wolf amongst the throng of jungle periphery. Even a lone wolf. But not everyone can be an apex predator. Some of us have to be a penguin, mouse or bush pig. Hell, you can dress a push pig up in a dress and ride it in a fancy horse and carriage, yet on a prom date it's still a bush pig. But maybe good's and also-rans, and bush pigs, don't listen to motivational videos.