Average, Normal, and Regular

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_1203339045625 Right now, by all accounts, I should have 1.2 kids, be $10,000 in credit card debt, and have had two major car accidents by now. But not one of these is right.

Numbers and stats work on averages. You pay the insurance premiums you do because of averages. How often does your "type" of person have a car accident? How many years sooner does a smoker die than a non smoker? If you’re under 25 and male, you are throw in with a pack of reckless idiots, who by their car insurance premiums, must have caused every car accident ever known.

I shave my head because I am going bald and "one size fits all" doesn’t when it comes to baseball caps.

I make money from one of my credit cards. It gives miles back. I run it up and pay it off monthly. The average person doesn’t. The average person leaves a balance and his interest eats up all of the miles he earned. He is essentially paying me with his "average" mistake. And by not being average with my credit card, I make money where the general population loses it.

Poker is a game of chance, yet the same names always show at the last table of the World Series of Poker.

The average affiliate marketer make less than $100 a year. The average blogger quits after a month. I didn’t look those up, but they’re pretty close. All this says to me is that being average sucks.

But the numbers can stop you in your tracks. They used to stop me. Until I realized it was a choice. I can listen to the numbers and choose to be average or just stop listening when statistics come into play.

The average is where normal people stop. To be more than that, you just have to take one step over the line. And then the numbers start working for you. You will make money by using a credit card. You will learn enough about statistics to play better than average poker. You will be blogging on day 32. And you will find a way around the fact that no one makes clothes that fit you.

Tags: average, average person, normal, regular, statistics

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18 Feb, 2008  Journal



8 Comments so far »

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  1. Tommy said

    February 18 2008 @ 10:14 am

    Nice post Stephan. Well articulated and spot on. PEACE……T

    Tommy’s last blog post..What Time Of Day Are You?

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  2. Mommie said

    February 18 2008 @ 12:04 pm

    I have never been average and hope not to be anytime soon. For blogging I’ve found out that I’m still not average, as I don’t blog about the same thing the other zillion bloggers do, seamingly on the same day. I always wonder if I’m missing out on the “I’m posting this today, you should to” memo.

    Anyhow, good post!

    Mommie
    http://www.mommieshome.net

    Mommie’s last blog post..If You Can’t Beat Em, Join Em, Then Beat Em

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  3. Al Haneson said

    February 18 2008 @ 1:51 pm

    I dislike the over-use of stats because they can be twisted any way you like.
    Take baseball: a player with a high batting average and high RBIs can look like a hero one day, but you can look at his strike out percentage and make him look bad another day.
    Stats and averages are for people who do not excel.
    Good post!
    AL

    Al Haneson’s last blog post..Smoking Will Stop You From Getting Hired!

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  4. Stephan Miller said

    February 18 2008 @ 2:15 pm

    Thanks for the comments. I seem to live around people whose goal is the status quo. Posts like these every once and while help me keep my sanity.

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  5. James said

    February 19 2008 @ 12:24 pm

    Great post. It really made me think and realize that I do not want to be compared to the average that is out there. I want to be different. Thanks for this post.

    Cheer.s

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  6. Stephan Miller said

    February 19 2008 @ 12:34 pm

    Now if I can only teach my kids this as they get older. Public school is not known for supporting these types of opinions. And it’s not even just the students any more, it’s the staff. We put our daughter in karate class and the school had the nerve to tell her not to use anything she learned if an adult she doesn’t know tries something. They said being quiet is the better option.

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  7. Anna said

    February 19 2008 @ 9:12 pm

    I know what you mean on this. I couldn’t wait until I passed all of those insurance premium ‘milestones’ to get cheaper insurance. This is a great article. Thanks for sharing.

    Anna’s last blog post..Important Decisions

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  8. Stephan Miller said

    February 20 2008 @ 6:46 am

    I had to pay those massive rates and had one accident in 17 years of driving. I dented someone’s bumper a little with mine.

    Off the topic, but I’ve always thought insurance rates should truly be based on a speeding ticket/accident ratio. Obviously is you speed a lot, your chances of an accident go up, but if your record show none, you are a better than average driver. If someone who never speeds gets in more accidents, he does so when all the odds of not having an accident are with him and is obviously a crappy driver.

    It wouldn’t help with the speeding problem, but I think in theory it’s accurate.

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