Humorist Garrison Keillor pokes fun at people who think they need to be better than the rest of humanity. He does this by creating a fictional town called Lake Wobegon where, “All women are beautiful and all children are above average.”
What is particularly ironic in Keillor’s make-believe community is that if all children are “above average” then “above average” really is average! So by insisting their children are all above par, Wobegoneons really are saying they are all normal. But what is wrong with being ordinary in the first place?
In his book, See You at the Top, motivational writer and speaker Zig Ziglar makes this very point. He shares an important fact: It is those who are categorized as “average” who are often the biggest successes and contributors in this country. In fact such people are what have made America great. Why is that?
When people develop and utilize their abilities, these gifts, which seem moderate at best in the beginning, can become very great through resolve and effort. Greatness usually starts small and is developed by hard work, perseverance, and determination. Thus people who start out as unexceptional and common often are the ones who rise above the rest because of these important character traits.
Another fact also comes to play. Many people have great gifts that are virtually buried until they make the effort to use them. How many have been surprised by a hidden talent that rises to the surface when need dictates that it be used? Certainly we all know of such examples from personal experience.
On the flip side, many people with unusually great innate abilities can squander them and fail to succeed because of laziness, lack of self-confidence, or limited self-discipline. This is tragic.
Think of how much these naturally gifted people could give to our world if they practiced the necessary character traits. It makes one wonder how many potential geniuses take their talents with them to the grave, virtually unused, due to poor self-actualization. Each such person is not only a personal tragedy, but also a tragedy for all the people who could have benefited from the proper use of their gifts.
Perhaps a cure for cancer would already have been found or the invention of renewable energy created if the people with the talents to discover these things had used them. Thus utilizing one’s talents has a moral dimension to it as well. Abilities were not given to be selfishly horded. They were given to benefit all.
Children need to know that there really are no “average” people. Being productive and successful is often less dependent on the quantity of inherited ability than on how completely these God-given gifts are developed and used.
Citizens of Lake Wobegon may be right after all. There are no average people. Instead there are people who utilize and develop their talents, and there are those who squander them. So being above average comes not from the amount of ability we are born with but from how we take advantage of these gifts that we have. Most people can rise to great accomplishments if they put their minds to it. The earlier young people understand this, the greater will their accomplishments be.
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