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Mentor Wisdom: "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." — John D. Rockefeller
Mentor Lesson: Good enough might be your enemy
Crabs in a bucket will pull each other down the moment one tries to escape.
Humans do the same thing to themselves. We get comfortable with "good enough" and then sabotage any chance of reaching "great." It's like we've got an internal crab pulling us back into the bucket of mediocrity.
Think about it.
You land a decent job and suddenly the dream of starting your own business feels too risky. You hit $10K months and the idea of pushing for $50K seems impossible. You build a solid product and the thought of making it exceptional feels overwhelming.
The comfort zone is sneaky like that. It whispers sweet lies about how "good" is actually "great" and how taking bigger swings is just greedy.
John D. Rockefeller knew better.
He started as a bookkeeper making $50 a month. Most people would've called that "good enough" for a 16-year-old kid.
Instead, he saved every penny he could and eventually started his own business at 20.
When Standard Oil was already dominating the refining game, he could've coasted.
Nope.
He kept expanding, kept improving, kept trading good for great until he controlled 90% of America's oil.
The man literally couldn't stop upgrading his life because he understood that "good enough" was just another way of saying "settling for less."
Every breakthrough requires leaving something behind. Netflix ditched DVDs for streaming. Apple abandoned the iPod for the iPhone. Amazon moved beyond books to become everything.
The question isn't whether you should make trade-offs. You're already making them.
Every day you choose comfort over growth, you're trading your potential for peace of mind. Every time you pick "safe" over "stretch," you're swapping tomorrow's success for today's ease.
The real question is whether you're trading up or trading down.
As promised, wisdom in under a minute.
Talk soon,
-Chris
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