Recently, I’ve enjoyed reading John Maxwell’s book, Talent is Not Enough. In it he shares some important principles, and makes this bold statement: “People simply will not pay for average. They never have, they never will.”

He goes on to elaborate: “What amazes me about America is we have fallen in love with being average. But what we need to wake up to is that being average has never caught anybody’s attention and made anybody go the extra mile.

Being average has never helped anyone rise above the crowd. Average is average.

But why are we so much in love with average? Think about it for a moment. After you come home from a hard day’s work, you don’t look at your significant other and say, “Honey, we’ve worked hard today so let’s treat ourselves and go out to an average restaurant. And when the hostess is about to seat you, you don’t say, “Oh, by the way we want an average table. Yes, the table overlooking the water is very beautiful but we’d really like a table where no one likes to sit. And last, could you send over an average waiter?”

And when the average waiter comes, you don’t say, “We don’t want to know what your specialties are. No, we don’t want to know what you’re good at. What’s average here? Do you have anything back in the kitchen nobody has ordered?” You don’t go to an average restaurant, sit at an average table, have an average waiter, have an average meal, and walk out of that average place and say, “Sweetheart, what an experience. We must do this again next week!”

People don’t pay for average. So what makes one think they can have an average business or an average career or an average life and make a difference? Average doesn’t make a difference. Average is average.”

As a creative driver the message is very clear: Stop being average and start doing anything and everything to be amazing. People will always pay for amazing!