"Average sucks"
About this Quote
"Average sucks" is motivational culture with its teeth showing: three syllables of contempt dressed up as aspiration. Coming from Jordan Belfort, it’s not a neutral self-help mantra; it’s a sales-floor battle cry shaped by a life built on extremes, where ordinary isn’t just boring, it’s a threat to the whole performance. The line works because it’s blunt enough to feel like honesty and vague enough to let anyone project their own dissatisfaction onto it.
The specific intent is behavioral. Belfort isn’t inviting reflection; he’s trying to trigger motion. By framing “average” as disgusting, he turns ambition into a disgust response. That’s a classic persuasion move: don’t argue for excellence, stigmatize the alternative. It also conveniently collapses structural realities (luck, privilege, timing, industry gatekeeping) into a personal failure category. If average “sucks,” then any plateau can be read as laziness, and any risk can be justified as courage.
The subtext is more revealing: exceptionalism is not just desirable, it’s morally superior. In Belfort’s universe, “average” is coded as obedience, caution, and being told what you’re worth. That’s why the phrase lands with people stuck in corporate sameness or algorithmic sameness; it flatters them as secretly destined for more. It also smuggles in a dangerous permission slip: if average is intolerable, then bending rules starts to look like “refusing mediocrity.”
Context matters because Belfort’s brand is redemption via hustle. The line sells reinvention while quietly rehabilitating the appetite that got him famous in the first place: wanting more, fast, and being proud of it.
The specific intent is behavioral. Belfort isn’t inviting reflection; he’s trying to trigger motion. By framing “average” as disgusting, he turns ambition into a disgust response. That’s a classic persuasion move: don’t argue for excellence, stigmatize the alternative. It also conveniently collapses structural realities (luck, privilege, timing, industry gatekeeping) into a personal failure category. If average “sucks,” then any plateau can be read as laziness, and any risk can be justified as courage.
The subtext is more revealing: exceptionalism is not just desirable, it’s morally superior. In Belfort’s universe, “average” is coded as obedience, caution, and being told what you’re worth. That’s why the phrase lands with people stuck in corporate sameness or algorithmic sameness; it flatters them as secretly destined for more. It also smuggles in a dangerous permission slip: if average is intolerable, then bending rules starts to look like “refusing mediocrity.”
Context matters because Belfort’s brand is redemption via hustle. The line sells reinvention while quietly rehabilitating the appetite that got him famous in the first place: wanting more, fast, and being proud of it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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