Brian Johnson argues that being a misfit is a strength, not a flaw. He traces eccentricity through history: Benjamin Franklin took daily air baths, John Quincy Adams swam nude in the Potomac, and Albert Einstein developed speech late. Krishnamurti and Walt Whitman show that authenticity beats normality.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plos one. In our last plus one, we talked about Abigail Adams and her letter to her son, John Quincy Adams. As you may recall, she admonished the 12 year old who would become the sixth US President to live with virtue. And as we discussed, she wisely declared, these are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed. In contending with difficulties, great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, she says, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman. Now, as part of that plus one, I mentioned the fact that I think she and her family would have been part of our heroic movement, encouraging their kids to cultivate their virtue while doing the same on our heroic app. I also mentioned the fact that I think Benjamin Franklin would have either created something similar to our heroic app to track his virtuous targets or join the cause to help us win our current war between vice and virtue. Then I typed Benjamin Franklin into my Max search thingy to see if I could find a big idea from a philosopher's note on him and his commitment to virtue. And I hit the jackpot. Not only did I find a big idea featuring Benjamin Franklin and his idiosyncratic awesomeness, I also found a reference to John Adams in the same big idea. Fantastic. The reference was from Alan Cohen's Spirit Means Business. Now, Franklin and Adam showed up in an idea about helping us embrace our inner weirdos. Alan Cohen tells us, and I quote, being a misfit is not a defect. It may be your key to success. When I hear that a person is well adjusted, I ask, well adjusted to what? Learning how to find your way around a mental institution does not make you sane. Real sanity rests in authenticity. Maybe you're not so weird after all. Maybe your weirdness is your greatest asset. Maybe what you thought was wrong with you is what's right with you. Just because you were out of the mainstream doesn't disqualify you from vast achievement. You are in your own stream world. Change agents do not apologize for their eccentricities or try to hide them. Idiosyncrasies come with the package. So just get on with your creations and make your contribution, regardless of any oddness your personality has picked up along the way. Don't wait until you are normal before you claim greatness, normality, and genius are rare bedfellows. As Walt Whitman proudly proclaimed, not a particle or an inch of me is vile. I celebrate myself. End quote. That's from a chapter in which we learn about some of history's most awesome weirdos. Get this. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin started each day with an air bath, standing naked outside for 30 minutes? Yep. And that fellow American hero John Quincy Adams swam nude in the Potomac river at 5am every morning, even in freezing weather? Cold plunge for the win. Wim Hof would approve. Then we have Nicola Tesla and Steve Jobs with their whole array of idiosyncratic behaviors and genius inventions. Oh, and let's not forget about Albert Einstein. Did you know that he didn't even speak until he was three? And as an adult would stop his car, pluck a grasshopper and eat it? Apparently. Yep, that's normal. Then we have you. How's your weirdness? Alan tells us the myth being a misfit is a defect you must correct, but the reality is your nonconformity is your pathway to fulfillment. And so much of that passage is so eminently quotable. There's this learning to find your way around a mental institution does not make you sane. Plus, this is worth a quick repeat. Normality and genius are rare bedfellows. Then we have the whole well adjusted to what? Conversation, which, as you might be able to guess by this stage, reminds me of Krishnamurti's wisdom that being well adjusted to a profoundly sick society is no measure of health in a world where normal is so astonishingly suboptimal from a mental, physical and emotional health standpoint. Why, my dear friend, should we aspire for normalcy? Much better to lean into our weirdness and entertain the possibility that perhaps your weirdness is your greatest asset. Here's to echoing Whitman's proclamation as we celebrate every particle in the inch of ourselves, not someday, today. By the way, here Whitman also told us that in the faces of men and women, I see God. You know what I see and what we encourage our coaches to see in the faces of men and women Heroes. And yes, I'm looking at you, hero.
