Normal Behavior is Forgotten, Weird Behavior Survives.
On becoming obsessively good at something and the need to embrace your "weirdness" and follow your curiosity
Normal behavior is forgotten and only weird behavior survives.
A lot of the people we look up to in life are weird. Weird doesn’t come with a negative connotation either. Weird is defined as different from the ordinary and what are the people who do great things that we admire? Not ordinary.
Kobe Bryant was weird. For the first 45 minutes before his workout with trainers, he would do some of the most basic footwork routines. 45 minutes of boring, monotonous work to start every workout. Certainly, not normal.
Warren Buffett is weird. He reads annual reports and books nonstop each day. He certainly breaks the median distribution of normal levels of reading.
But these are not bad things. Much came to Kobe’s life because of his ruthless attention to detail. Warren Buffett is considered to be one of the greatest investors ever thanks to the volume of information he read. Being weird or becoming obsessively interested in something can pay. Downstream for an obsessive interest is becoming obsessively good.
When you look at the lives of people who we admire, a consistent pattern emerges. It begins as a unusual amount of interest in something that would have seemed pointless or weird to others. The very, very basic footwork drills that Kobe did would seem pointless to others when they asked him why one of the best players in the world focuses so much on the basics. However, what that fails to see is this “weird” routine is part of why Kobe was considered to be one of the greatest of all time. He never got bored with the basics.
And yes, Kobe Bryant and Warren Buffet are one of the greatest to ever do it in their respective careers so why should we care about becoming obsessively good at something? Surely, we can’t reach that level, right?
Because anyone can do it. Some may think I am forgetting about the need for natural talent and determination, but a deep interest in something is both a substitute for talent and determination. You don’t need to be determined when curiosity will pull you farther along than talent or determination would. Not to mention, downstream for being obsessively good at something is a great way to earn respect, build relationships, and even make some money. In a world where people are more lonely than ever, being really good at something is a great way to meet people who share similar values and passions as you.
I think of Kyla Scanlon, a girl who went to a small school in Bowling Green, Kentucky but worked herself into becoming one of the young, great financial minds. That small school was Western Kentucky University. Not the likes of Yale, Harvard, Stanford, or any of the names we throw around as the most prestigious universities in the USA. It was all thanks to a deep interest in the economy. It started as daily stock market updates and unique economic topics on a finance blog but grew to be much more. Now, she has a network that includes some of the most prolific, well-respected people in the finance industry and gets paid to pursue a passion of educating the people on the economy.
The beauty of today’s times is you don’t need a huge following or to attend a prestigious institution, those that matter will find you. You just need a track record of work to make something of yourself. And how do you attract the right eyeballs and develop that track record of work? You are obsessive to the point that few others are, or some may say weird about it. Whatever your interest may be, if you follow the path of obsessing over it, naturally you spend a lot of time with or on it, and if you spend a lot of time on it, you will get really good at it. And if you get really good at something, it will attract people who have the same interests as you.
At the most very basic level, my friends and I probably have a weird obsession with sports. There is no one better at naming the most obscure NBA player or remembering a NCAA tournament game that occurred in 2016. And that is a big reason we are friends. It is a shared interest around the same obsessions. But this should not be mistaken either. The reason why this works is not out of intention. We don’t obsess over sports to impress each other with the most obscure fact, we do it because we genuinely like it.
Kobe and Warren Buffett did what they did because they liked it and never got bored, just like Kyla did a daily stock market update out of pure obsession, or my friends remembered who BenJarvus Green-Ellis was out of love for the Cincinnati Bengals. It was not to lay the groundwork to impress someone later but instead, it was just work done without the outcome in mind.
Real obsession is indifferent to the outcome. For everyone, your curiosity doesn’t need to be something that gets you famous. Rather, you just want a set of narrow people to know about you. Be famous within your bubble. It will bring you riches in terms of community. In a world more lonely but more hyper-connected than ever before, this matters. We have 100 online friends but no one to water our plants when we go out of town for a week. At the very least, if you get really good at something, you walk away with lifelong connections that enrich your life.
And perhaps, it is something that gets you famous. There is nothing wrong with that either. What that tells you is when you follow an obsessive interest you are raising your surface area for luck. Put simply, the harder you work, the better you become and the better your luck. And since luck is made to be taboo, just have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith. Faith as you define it. Faith in being open to what is out of your control and what is to come. Faith in bliss.
“Follow your bliss and doors will open where they were only walls.”
If you follow your desires it will open doors we didn’t even know existed. Curiosity is something we all have. It is innate. We are born with it. Curiosity is not something that ceases to exist when we walk out the door of our final lecture in college. It is a thing we all can channel.
When things get monotonous or difficult, your curiosity is the natural stimulant that pushes you forward. It is the best pre-workout money could buy. Think about this, you need pre-workout to go to the gym but if you are truly motivated, you shouldn’t need anything. Motivation is the stimulant that helps you walk through that front door. Curiosity is no different. It is part of the path of the mastery of something that moves you forward through the drudgery.
Sitting through the drudgery is what separates the good from the great. The ordinary from the extraordinary. Kobe did 45 minutes of “basic” footwork drills at the beginning of every training session. Warren Buffett sits for hours on end reading financial reports that would be boring to most. But this is how you become obsessively good. This is how you earn respect, make lifelong connections, and get paid.
You can work really hard on crafting a well written, organized, resume with bullet points of accomplishments – but you know what you can’t fake? Being really good at something and having a track record of work. Some might think it is weird to obsess over something but remember, normal behavior is forgotten and what about weird behavior? Well, it survives and I think most of us want to live a life that will be remembered doing things we love no matter how “weird.”
Appreciate you reading.
-Scantron