My hair dresser is somewhat of a philosopher, and one day while he was cutting my hair, he told me his version of the three types of people in the world.
The first is what he calls the Creators. These are the movers and shakers, the perfectionists, the people who push things forward and change things up. 
They are also leaders, activists, risk-takers, and goal-setters. At a university setting, this manifests in many forms. Somebody who strives for a high GPA with visions of a good Grad School is a Creator. So is the Peace and Justice Studies major who travels to Central America twice a year to conduct research. Same goes for the hardworking and inspiring captain of a sports team.
The second is what my hair dresser calls the Watchers. These are the people on the sidelines, observing events and tracking outcomes. They generally don’t like the limelight and wish to stay detached. They don’t change things up, but open themselves up to change. They may have goals, but are less interested in fulfilling them than watching other people try and fulfill theirs.
Watchers can be harder to spot, not because there are less of them but because they don’t really make the headlines. Even though Watchers aren’t usually leaders, they aren’t necessarily followers, either.
The third type, says my hair dresser, are the people who don’t really know what’s going on. They’re just lost, dazed, and confused. He never gave them a name, but I’ll call them the Lost. They neither create nor watch, but sort of get swept along.
Usually the “three types” adage gets old fast, but I thought my hair dresser’s version was unusually accurate. It took time for me to realize that I’m not, in fact, a Creator, and it took even more time to come to grips with that fact. From a young age, I’ve preferred the role of the Watcher, only to cautiously enter the realm of the Creator at certain moments (publishing a column in the Observer, for example, has definite Creator qualities to it). That's the other nice thing about his philosophy--you're not bound to a certain type. Although we may have a predisposition to one type or another, we can always take on a new role, if we're willing to work through the difficulty. It's as challenging for a Watcher to push her way through the crowd as it is for a Creator to just relax and let go.
Finally, I like this philosophy because it respects all three types while recognizing the roles they play in society. Many Americans hear the words “risk-taker,” “leader,” and “success,” and a loud bell goes off somewhere in our brains, stirring our egos and conjuring up grand images of a world with us on the cover of Time Magazine. We want to be the best, or be the most recognized, or do the most good—or if we can’t, then come the closest we can to it. This phenomenon, however, is a clear product of cultural conditioning from having grown up in a country of Creators (i.e. immigrants). But not everybody can or should be a Creator, and my personal bias suspects that there have been far too many Creators beating each other up in the last half-century, or longer. In any case, hearing my hair dresser’s words helped me to realize that it’s okay to be a Watcher. Who else will keep the Creators in line?
I think I’ll get my hair cut more often.
Comments (1)
Good article, simple and thoughtful.
On a similar note, we have a bad practice of selectively closing our ears to certain people, particularly those who serve us (ie, barbers, security gaurds, janitors etc.,) We need to ask questions and listen, there's always more to learn...
--Paula
Posted by: paula kaufman at February 9, 2007 11:01 AM