Mediocrity (ii)

If you have to pass through mediocrity, it is because you still haven't attained it.  You should aspire to that first.  For my jazz piano playing that would playing something that sounded very conventional and clichéd, but with the idiomatically correct clichés, like the barely audible jazz piano in a movie cocktail party that's just supposed to be there as ambience. The guy or gal playing that is better than I am, so I could aspire to get there.