The Bell Curve

“An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.”

~ Reid Hoffman

When I was in school, I remember teachers speaking about grading on a curve.

It was called the bell curve.

The bell curve is just that.

Dots on a graph that when connected looks like a bell.

In most normal populations, people will fall fairly consistently on some point in that example. There are the few that are at one extreme end, struggling to make the grade and keep up.

There is another small group that lands at the other end of the spectrum , exceeding the average and achieving higher results than everyone else.

The bulk of the population falls somewhere along the continuum,some needing extra help and some inching closer to the high achievers.

Hence the bell shape.

This is not a phenomenon limited to test scores in high school.

It has been my experience that whenever I am working with a group of people, this same pattern occurs.

Whether at work, or with a social group or civic group or just about any organization I have worked with, there are those that shine, the "A" types, then the B's, C's D's and yes even those that really aren't making the grade.

After my visit last week, the reunion of the Fearsome Foursome, I realized that we, all four of us, were a small part of a larger group that pushed back against this trend.

Our pledge class had 13 young men in it.

We pledged a fraternity whose population mimicked the bell curve model fairly accurately.

That is until we appeared.

In this merry band of misfits (affectionate term!) , there was an inordinate number of "a" types.

Normally, this imbalance might lead to infighting as "a"'s will try to exert their strength and tend to try to dominate.

Not so with this group.

What actually happened is that somehow, without any discourse or planning, we all became b's.

B's understand that they have to work harder to keep up with a's.

So they change themselves.

Along the way, they ask for help as well as work at helping those around them.

In the end, it's the b's who ultimately bring about change. The b's create success.

The b's make themselves and others better.

Eventually this same merry bunch of misfits made their way into the real world.

A bunch of a's that disguised themselves as b's and in doing so, made everything they came in contact with better.