Welcome to the Court!!  If you're someone who has fulfilled their potential as a human being this blog isn't for you!  This is a space for the underachievers of the world to vent their frustrations with all the other underachievers in the world and then read my comments  ranting about them!  In 2001, my partner, The Rock, and I published "The Underachiever's Guide to Leadership, The Art of the Duck and the Dodge".  It was the culmination of a clandestine study of several thousand participants in a Leadership school conducted by our organization which attempted to train managers to be leaders in business.We learned, firsthand, what we suspected at the outset, that the vast majority of people are underachievers and that our entire social and industrial structures have evolved into havens for underachievement.  Let's agree on a set of fundamental definitions:

UNDERACHIEVEMENT  is the failure to perform to your expected capabilities; ACHIEVEMENT   is the performance to your actual capabilities; and OVERACHIEVEMENT  is performance beyond your expected capabilities. 

The subjects of our study, most of whom were managers and executives in companies large and small extending over many different industries, were 90+% college grads, some with post-graduate work and had a minimum work experience of 6-10 years.  We found that when challenged to perform, either intellectually or physically, most preferred to take the easiest way out of the challenge.  When engaged, most were quick to find short cuts that would bring them a result, not necessarily the desired one, but one that they could accept and were willing to submit for evaluation.  They were masters at finding compromise solutions that didn't quite meet the required results, but were sufficient enough to enable them to have something to submit for evaluation.  We were not so much surprised as we were delighted that we had discovered the Mother Lode of Underachievement in the workforce!  Among the things we learned were:

Minimums are good enough, so don't question them.
Rules are not intended to be broken, nor are they intended to be followed - they're merely guidelines for those who cannot figure out for themselves what needs to be done.
The 'status quo' is a good thing and shouldn't be messed with unless termination is the only alternative.
It's possible to be a leader and an underachiever simultaneously - not easy, but possible!
There are far more ways to fail than there are to succeed, and there are many ways to make failure look like success.

In 2001 the Gallup organization published a survey that measured the level of 'engagement' of workers in their jobs which showed that barely 30% of American workers were engaged in their jobs.  At that time 70% of American workers were either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and are less likely to be productive.  I just found the 2011 study results from Gallup that indicate the number is up to 71% "not engaged' or "actively disengaged" in their work.  When we read the results of the first Gallup survey we cheered that what we had suspected, and then found to be true, was now affirmed by a world-wide study!  Why doesn't this bother anyone besides the Rock and me?  Just look around at our educational system nationwide - we are graduating 18 year-olds from high school who cannot write cursive, who cannot compose a paragraph using sentences with more than 5-6 words, most of which have 2 or fewer syllables, who are unable to spell beyond a 3rd or 4th grade level of education, and yet, (here's the really scary part) who are mostly entering colleges and universities!!  They are products of educators whose employment is tied directly to student performance on so-called 'achievement tests', who 'teach' a watered-down curriculum focused exclusively on material from the standardized 'achievement' tests, and who, themselves, are largely unable to think creatively or to articulate problems and craft their solutions.  51% is a passing grade in many high school classes and even in college courses.  "Honor Roll" doesn't carry the same significance of achievement now that it did two generations ago.  Workers in production plants and service centers are paid to produce products and services based upon an "acceptable minimum" and oftentimes the only method of increasing production beyond the minimum is with monetary or other incentives.  There's no inherent pride or value in doing the best job you are capable of, or setting personal production goals and then working to exceed them.  It's time to celebrate our underachievement and continue to work towards preserving the status quo - change is our enemy and as underachievers we owe it to future generations to continue to lower expectations so they won't have to work any harder than is necessary.  It's just easier to join 'em than to fight 'em!