Good vs Best

Is there a Ronaldo in your community?

I grew up in Nigeria. Of course, I have heard people say there are boys that can play football better than Messi and Ronaldo at a local football pitch in Ikorodu, where they pick five men per team, borrow the football, and use bamboo sticks to make the goal post, but the boys have not gotten an opportunity to play professional football.

[Picture source: AI/ Pixlr]

I have also heard that there are men in the eastern part of the country who are very rich because they have multiple businesses with different apprentices across a number of branches. I heard that they don’t care about Forbes’ list or that they prefer to be low-key, so they are not featured on Forbes, or any such list.

This post highlights the mostly overlooked contrast between good success and great success. Between being ‘good’ and being the ‘best’. Between being the guy who everyone hails his name at a local football pitch in Ikorodu, and Cristiano Ronaldo.

It takes a lot to stand out in whatever niche you find yourself- so I have noticed. You need to show up consistently and prove you are that guy for the job. Then you’ll hear people make comments about you like, “That guy is a good engineer”.

When it comes to being the ‘best engineer’, it is a different reality. Actually, it is the same game you’re playing, only that this time you’re playing with people who are ‘good engineers’ too, and you need to again, show up consistently, and prove that you’re that guy, even among people who have done the same.

People underestimate the amount of work that needs to be done to achieve great stuff. At a certain level, you can talk about how talents give some people some edge, but at best, that talent only qualifies them to be a ‘good engineer’ like I mentioned earlier. Nobody who is the best at anything, got there by a talent.

The way people underestimate the gap between the ‘good’ and the ‘best’ can be likened to how some people don’t see a lot of difference between a million and a billion. A million, sounds like a lot right? Yes, you can say that’s ‘good’ money. In contrast, a billion, means one million in one thousand places. Let’s think of it together, you’ll need one million dollars, and another one million dollars, and one more million dollars, just to make three million dollars, now we’re going to nine hundred and ninety-nine, with an additional one. That’s a lot right? Yes, that’s ‘best’ money.

The world has a population of about 8.1 billion, but there are only 2,781 billionaires. That is 0.000034%. In clear terms, there’s only 1 billionaire in about 3 million people. But some people are quick to talk about how there’s a low-key billionaire in their village. Maybe what they just have is ‘good’ money.

You will be surprised that the guy who plays football at a field near your house and is the top goalscorer, may not even meet the qualifications to be drafted into professional football at a ‘good’ league. Now you are comparing him with a professional footballers in the ‘best’ leagues. There’s a lot of difference. There are people who have stood out from local football pitches, and found their way through, to good leagues. I’ve heard of a few who played well and got into professional football- maybe some leagues in Czech, Ireland, Denmark, etc, good stuff, even though they were literally the best when they played locally. A very minute ratio of these people manage to go further and get into the ‘best’ leagues like the ones in Europe. See the difference now?

Luck is a factor, some people aren’t just as lucky. Valid. But people tend to overestimate luck when the discourse between the ‘good’ and the ‘best’ comes up. The difference between the good and the best is more than luck.

Bring a professional football player from the bottom of leagues, and you are up for a surprise if you think he won’t outperform the best of local unprofessional players.

There’s a level of mastery you’ll attain where growth and opportunities to grow seem automatic.

I hope that if you find someone who is the ‘best’, you give them the accolades they deserve.

And if you want it, I also hope that you give it what it takes to get ‘best’ kind of mastery.

Cheers.

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