--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 8 number: 6 published: 1905-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mediocrity Not Good Enough," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 6 (April 1905): 440.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0806unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0806unse start_page: 440 end_page: 440 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0806unse publication_year: 1905 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Mediocrity Not Good Enough 440 IMPRO VEMENT ERA. Mount of Olives." "The transfiguration took place in the mountain." "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it," etc., etc. According to the Bible account, Abraham was reared in the valley of the Tigris. He dwelt there seventy-five years, and although converted from his idolatry, it seems more than likely that his future life would be, to some extent, influenced by the usages and customs of his native country. He left Babylonia 1900 years B.C. The Jaredites,according to the Book of Mormon, left Babylonia three hundred years before Abraham took his departure. The jaredites did not sojourn in Egypt, as did Abraham, but came directly to the western continent, landing in Central America. Everything that they knew, socially and religiously, they learned in Babylon. Is it any wonder that they erected their dwellings after the pattern of the Babylonians? Is it to be wondered at that they built their temples on raised mounds, after the fashion of their native country? I do not assert that the similarity of architecture and the presence of artificial mounds in Babylonia and America afford conclusive evidence for the Book of Mormon, but I regard them as strong circumstantial evidence. Ogden, Utah. MEDIOCRITY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We are largely the creatures of our environment and associations. Every person we come in contact with influences us for good or ill, and leaves an impression of his own character upon us. Beware of anything which lowers the ideals or makes you satisfied with anything less than your level best,—with anything but excellence,—or which tries to make you believe that mediocrity is good enough, or that ordinary will do. It is the mind which will be satisfied with nothing but the best, and which will have nothing to do with anything less than excellence, that achieves that which is worth while. —Success.