The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [85]
In 2007, Fortune ran a cover photo of Chouinard and called his company “the coolest company on the planet.”
COURAGE
It is well-documented that courage is one of the most admired characteristics across the world. For their book Character Strengths and Virtues, psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman studied various religions and attitudes in more than seventy countries, in order to develop a shortlist of “those abiding moral traits that everyone values” and the practice of which could bring about personal happiness or “the good life.” Courage emerged as such a universally cherished characteristic that the authors highlighted it as one of six core virtues (the others were wisdom, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence). Courage “has an inner life as well as an outer one,” the psychologists concluded. “Courage is composed of not just observable acts but also the cognitions, emotions, motivations, and decisions that bring them about. . . . We mean courage to include . . . any act of willfully overcoming into what it is so easy to slip: security, comfort, complacency. We mean doing what is right, even when one has much to lose.”
Less about reckless behavior than strength of character, this kind of bravery includes standing up to or departing from group thinking, venturing into the unfamiliar, and making unpopular choices. As discussed earlier, courage is ever present among nonconformists. It is an emblem that, whether they know it or not, all cafeteria fringe wear by virtue of both the individualism that made them cafeteria fringe and the will to endure the exclusion as they continue to stay true to themselves.
Creativity. Freethinking. Resilience. Authenticity. Candor. Courage. None of these characteristics typically marks the collective popular crowd in schools. This is not to say that populars don’t possess these characteristics, or that their own set of qualities, like negotiation skills and savvy, won’t benefit them in the future. But they are perhaps less likely to exhibit them than, say, the geek, loner, punk, floater, freak, nerd, rebel, or outsider. If a student is marginalized at school, he likely already possesses at least a few of these traits. In the quest to have a satisfying post-school life that earns respect and appreciation, therefore, the cafeteria fringe are already ahead of the game.
Although the inner qualities that lead a student to be excluded or that inform his reaction to being excluded may carry over into adulthood, the exterior label doesn’t have to. While scientists, doctors, writers, entrepreneurs, and various other professionals represent quirk theory, in this chapter I have focused mostly on celebrities to illustrate that popularity in adulthood is based on different factors than popularity in school. Consider this abridged list of celebrities who told the media they were excluded in school:
Judd Apatow, director, producer, screenwriter (Superbad, Knocked Up, Freaks and Geeks): “I think that everything I do tends to root for the underdog. I always felt as a kid that I was under-appreciated, invisible, or weird, but I’ve always secretly thought people would one day appreciate what is different about me. I’m always putting that message out there. Eventually the nerds and the geeks will have their day.”
Actress Angelina Jolie: At school, “I was the punk outsider,” she has said. “I used to cut myself or jump out of airplanes, trying to find something new to push up against because sometimes everything else felt too easy. I was searching