Never Change Nelly

This is the second caricature in my blog series. My first caricature was the True Believer. This character could well overlap with True Believers, Never Change Nelly. Never Change Nelly wants everything to remain as they are currently. The ultimate conservative (not in the American political sense) who wants everything to remain constant day-to-day and so on. They refuse to take any chances no matter how detrimental their current position may be. Any discontinuity to their never changing world is taken as a threat without regards to the effects in their lives.

What may drive this worldview? My guess is a variety of things.
1. As people age they get set in their ways and want to change less
2. Personality, some people do not like surprises or challenges
3. One pathology of this thinking creates the mindset of I know everything. (Hint: no one knows everything or even possesses the majority of knowledge humans have. This really is another version of narcissism.)
4. They have worked hard to set their lives up in a certain manner which they like.
5. Life has been easy for them

Whatever the driving factor behind Never Change Nelly, a problem quickly arises. Our world is a quickly changing, highly dynamic place. Change will come. Change is inevitable. You cannot stop it. What was true yesterday may not be true tomorrow. Stubborn refusal to adapt creates dinosaurs. Being an expert with the typewriter 3 decades ago would have given someone employment. Today, it would equal unemployment. Adaptation is vital for survival. To paraphrase Andy Grove, the cofounder of Intel, in reference to the budding computer industry, "Only the paranoid survive".

I truly believe successful individuals adapt to changes. Never Change Nelly will never find a place among the successful.

True Believer

This post is going to be one in a several on different caricatures who fill social roles and carry certain beliefs/worldviews. My initial caricature is a very familiar one, the True Believer. "True believer" is often associated with a deeply religious person in the traditional sense, which, is a great example (Myer-Briggs personality indicators put these type of people as SJs). I will take it further, as someone who is deeply dedicated to whatever their cause is may that be religion, career, organization, society and etc. This definition covers all personality types in all areas of modern society.

When I mean True Believer, it is someone who models their life around the ideal group "member". They have full, sincere faith in the institutions which they belong. They go the extra distance.

Why am I mentioning this seemingly obvious concept? It is because True Believers will move up their respective ladders in life (organization, career and etc.) well ahead of other caricatures. This Fortune magazine article talks about the most successful individuals in corporations are those who maintain the status quo when moving up the corporate rungs. This concept is universal with almost all organizations with individual groups having different criteria. The politically correct, communist professor who is a hit in academia would not last too long in a conservative business atmosphere. You get the drift. I think it has to do with trust among the leadership. It is easiest to trust those who are true believers in your cause.