"What many young people fail to realize is the fact that you don't have to be much better than most others in order to do well. Only a slight superiority may be enough to make a vast difference.
Most of the people we call successful are not twice as smart, or twice as able, as the rest of the field. Indeed, if they are only 10 percent more proficient, this is generally more than enough to give them a consistent edge.
In sports, for instance, the best batting or passing records are not a great deal higher than the average. In field or track the differences are even smaller: a fraction of an inch or a fraction of a second may distinguish the winner from the also-rans...
If you can average 5 to 10 percent better - no more - than others in your field, the rewards can be 100 percent greater; this is the compounding effect of achievement over a period of time...
You only have to be a little bit better than most in what you do. Just a little more energetic, or whatever other prime quality is demanded in your field. If successes admitted this, they would not have cause to feel so conceited; and if the aspirants recognized this, they would not have cause to feel so left behind at the starting line."
Sydney J. Harris as quoted by David Cavitch in Life Studies
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