If You Want to Make A Difference, Embrace Being the “Fool”
Every position you’re placed in has potential that you may or may not be able to clearly see.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve probably picked up roughly 10 new hobbies or interests and dreamed of becoming the best at them.
Each time followed a cycle. The euphoria of some new idea coursed through my veins, I worked really hard at it for a range of 4 to 8 weeks, and then it slowly became of less and less interest to me. Then, throughout the remainder of the year, it transformed into some loosely or completely unrelated new goal that I was “definitely going to stick with this time.”
I’m high in a trait called openness, which simply means that I consistently seek novelty. People high in openness have a greater tendency to be interested in many things and, although they can certainly be smart people, they often have a hard time sticking with one particular point of interest. This is because, after working for a period of time on a subject you want to master, there is always a growing resistance as you get more into the weeds of it all. Once the excitement for novelty in a new hobby exceeds the desire to do the hard work for the current hobby, we decide to move on.
But I don’t think people high in openness (or anyone in this pattern for that matter) just do this aimlessly. There was always a part of me that thought “You need to stick to this. You’re never going to actually become great at it if you just give up when it’s tough.”
But then my favorite exit would always light up bright and shiny down the hallway.
- “There’s too big of a barrier to entry.”
- “People just can’t see how good of a candidate I am.”
- “I’m working so hard, I deserve to see results by now.”
If any of these bullets are true, then I should just move on to something that will actually be worth my time, right?
If I can really put in a whole 2 months of work and it’s this hard to see results, then it’s the system that’s messed up, right? I’ve mastered this and people just aren’t giving me the credit I deserve.
Hopefully, by now you have picked up on my very facetious tone.
That said, my answer to the problem was always to blame people or the system for making things too hard. I was never willing to just freaking admit that maybe my worst nightmare was true. I was just a beginner, a newbie, a freshman, and I would be for quite some time. In other words, I was the “fool.”
But It’s Not Just with Extracurriculars
This doesn’t just happen with hobbies though. To expand the concept into a wider territory, let me give a few examples of when we are still the “fool.”
“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.” — Mark Twain
“You won’t get far in your attempt to negotiate a pay increase if your principal argument is that you work as hard as you do. We are expected to work hard, so the argument “I’m a hard worker!” isn’t likely to carry the day.” — Forbes
- Creative Achievement (With regard to writing, though it expands into other creative realms)
“So many people complain that they haven’t seen success on Medium in 6 months. Well, darn, I’d love to build Rome in a day, too.” — Tom Kuegler
It’s pretty obvious that this trend of desiring expedient results is all throughout our culture and my guess is that there may be an area or two of your life that you think of yourself as the expert when it might benefit you to downgrade yourself to the fool. I know I have a bunch.
“It is better to presume ignorance and invite learning than to assume sufficient knowledge and risk the consequent blindness.”
— Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order
So What Can We Do?
I started reading Jordan Peterson’s new book a few days ago, and the first rule was the inspiration for this article. There was a cool anecdote about a waiter that he had run into while writing the book, that I think is a good idea of what our next moves are:
I visited a restaurant in Toronto with my wife, son, and daughter while writing this. As I made my way to my party’s table, a young waiter asked if he might say a few words to me. He told me that he had been watching my videos, listening to my podcasts, and reading my book, and that he had, in consequence, changed his attitude toward his comparatively lower-status, (but still useful and necessary) job. He had ceased criticizing what he was doing or himself for doing it, deciding instead to be grateful and seek out whatever opportunities presented themselves right there before him. He made up his mind to become more diligent and reliable and to see what would happen if he worked as hard at it as he could. He told me, with an uncontrived smile, that he had been promoted three times in six months.
With regard to the bullet points of when we are still the ‘fool’…
Romantic Relationships:
We are “fools” when it comes to being the expert of another person. Sure, you may have some perspective on a particular situation, but more often than not, the main role in a relationship is to listen and stand by somebody's side. If you do a damn good job at this, then people will likely “promote” you and want to listen to you more because they can see that you just want to be with them.
Entry or Mid-Level Jobs:
When you don’t own the company, you are typically given a smaller role in it. Even though your words may not have the most weight, your ability to fulfill your nonetheless important role with determination and a good attitude may make people realize how valuable your words are. Your willingness to embrace your ignorance and ask potentially stupid questions may show that you’re not afraid to learn.
Creative Achievement:
If you’ve been writing consistently for a year or more, it is very statistically likely that something you write will have value to someone, or maybe many people. If you’ve been playing or creating music for a while, you will eventually hit the right note on the keyboard to make a domino fall in someone’s heart. The question is, are you willing to own that you currently suck and one day you can be great?
Every position you are placed in has potential that you may or may not be able to clearly see yet.
No one unwilling to be a foolish beginner can learn. It was for this reason, among others, that Carl Jung regarded the Fool as the archetypal precursor to the figure of the equally archetypal Redeemer, the perfected individual.
Most people that are great had to start as nobodies. They were once the fool. Now it’s your turn to embrace it. Let’s see where it takes us.
