Innovators, be they from the worlds of business or the arts, are often attributed credit for having an edginess and rebelliousness that lies at the heart of their success.
In popular management literature, Malcolm Gladwell, among others, celebrates underdogs and misfits whose temerity to upset the status quo and break the rules provides the motivation and guile to succeed. This line of thinking suggests that the disadvantaged and excluded often triumph, not just despite of, but in some way because of their, perceived weakness.
This includes dyslexics who succeed because of their highly developed listening skills or those who rise from deep poverty to super-wealth by a burning desire to turn extreme adversity on its head.
It's a nice narrative but a dangerous one, according to author Robert Kelsey in his new book The Outside Edge.
For the most-part, being an outsider sucks and the so-called outsider advantage is a myth he feels needs a serious debunking. As he puts it, “it’s not a bankable gift” and he elaborates: “Being an outsider is an option only open to a well-educated elite perusing their expensively acquired advantages over the rest of us.”
Wealthy background
By way of example, he cites revolutionary techies such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who had wealthy parents and a good college education, and Richard Branson, who certainly fits the outsider label but who is the privately educated son of barrister.
Outsiders can succeed but they need to be attuned to their own weaknesses and need to work that bit harder to overcome obstacles.
In essence they need to work on their emotional intelligence. Distrust, low self-esteem, fear of failure, self-sabotage and finding evidence for prejudice against people and organisations – such is the unhappy lot of the outsider, Kelsey says.
This can be career suicide. “Outsiders are absolutely terrible at office politics,” he notes. For those who can manage it, entrepreneurship does offer a better future, he agrees, but even here, there are dangers in outsiders becoming too attached to their fantasies and not getting the necessary buy-in from others. The trick to overcome this is detachment.
“You need to think in terms of ‘me-Inc.’, he advises. “This means you think of yourself as a business that needs resources and that has long-term year goals. It helps take the emotional aspect out of it.”
The author, a self-professed outsider and self-help junkie, wrote the book partly to make sense of his own world. There’s a strong sense of catharsis running through the narrative. It’s also consciously derivative. He quotes liberally from philosophers, sociologists and psychologists. Ultimately, he’s looking to help others, similarly afflicted.
Kelsey had a twisty and sometimes bumpy path to his present successful career as a PR consultant. From a humble Essex estate, he became a self-professed “bad boy”, before identities as a Cockney, intellectual, eastern mystic, then hard-boiled financial journalist, leading to a belt and braces city career in banking.
This led him to New York where he wrote a sex-laden novel about shenanigans in the world of high finance. The book is now an embarrassment to him and he talks of having “sold out in a quest to become the next Nick Hornby”.
Redemption came in the form of realising that entrepreneurship was a good path for an outsider.
Second publication
Playing on his knowledge of journalism and banking, he founded a successful financial PR agency, Moorgate, in 2002 and in 2013 became deputy chair of the Centre for Entrepreneurs.
His second attempt at publishing, What's Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don't Achieve Their Potential and How You Can was a huge success, selling more than 100,000 copies worldwide and further books soon followed.
Kelsey says self-awareness has brought him happiness. It’s not all bad being an outsider too, he notes. The upside of the hypersensitivity associated with this personality type is a unique vantage point for seeing things insiders simply don’t observe but that upbeat note comes with a warning.
"Until outsiders learn to convert that skewed view into something positive with meaning, as well as something both offering and generating an edge, it's one that will remain genuinely disabling," he says. Robert Kelsey's Rules for outsiders "Understand and accept who you are - self-awareness helps and empowers you for change
“Find meaning - discover your niche and reject defeatism
“Adopt a growth mindset - assume every encounter is a chance to learn more
“Nurture your insight - play to the strength of the knowledge outsider have
“Participate - Avoid loneliness and despair
“Develop good judgement - balance emotional feelings to become a better decision-maker
“Serve your apprenticeship - be patient and hone your skills to give you an edge
“Beware pride - don’t suffer paralysis through fear of failure failure and humiliation
