In Paul Arden’s ‘Whatever You Think Think The Opposite’, he outlines the common and familiar characterisations of ‘Steady Eddie’ and ‘Reckless Erica’. Below, you will find a summary of the two characters – see if you identify more with one over the other.
Who is Steady Eddie?
Steady Eddie is best described as a “corporate non-risk taker”. Eddie is the kind of person, that you may know, who is in a stable job with a good company, and has no intention of leaving any time soon. He enjoys his job well enough, is competent without being a superstar. Eddie is well liked by both superiors and colleagues alike.
Eddie’s superiors like to promote him due, as Paul Arden says, “to the fact that it reflects well on them”. However, Eddie rarely makes a splash in the company and won’t be counted on to develop or nurture his company’s brand for the future. He is the man for the company of now, not for the company of tomorrow. As Eddie sees his career move from a period of growth, to that of stagnation, he is likely to notice that a rising talent in his team (and on a third of his salary), is getting attention from senior management…
As Arden says, “our man at 40 is moved sideways, and is out by 47”. He has fallen behind the relentless march of progress, and there will be no getting back on. Eddie will instead find another company to work for that still needs his skills, but he will not be growing or developing any further.
Who is Reckless Erica?
In contrast to Steady Eddie, Reckless Erica lays in the opposite end of corporate spectrum. She is wildly creative and comes up copious amounts of outrageous ideas that are different, yet don’t always bring in success.
In her youth, Erica lacks the effortless charm of Eddie and finds it harder to get her foot in the door to begin developing her career. Often people see Erica as erratic, bouncing from one outlandish idea to the next, instead of focusing on what people need her to do now. However, this does not last forever. As Arden notes, “somewhere in the company someone picks up one of her wilder thoughts and promotes it. It gets noticed because it is different and fresh”.
Now this is not to say that Erica has now “made it”. Even after getting noticed, she continues in her erratic ways and produces a series of unwieldy ideas that don’t go anywhere. A few years later, she is disillusioned with the company for not seeing her visions and is fired. This is not the end for our friend Erica, and she actually finds it much easier to get a job than she anticipated. This is because employers see the success she had from her fresh idea a few years ago, and gloss over the failures she had in the years after. They see that Erica brings the skills and experience that many other employees lack. She is hired.
The new company likes having her onboard, and she once again finds one of her ideas getting promoted. However, Erica soon finds herself getting frustrated and gets fired again. Another company sees that she has two fresh ideas and gives her a shot. The cycle continues…
Now at 40, Erica is in a very different position to our friend Eddie. Arden says “when she reaches 40, she has a track record of ups and downs but more ups. She is now respected in her industry and, whilst still reckless, in greater demand than ever”.
Which one is better?
Arden writes that “the problem with making sensible decisions is that so is everyone else”. What he means by this is that it can be difficult to stand out, be noticed and be valued over the course of an entire career, if you are only going to produce the same ideas as everyone else.
Neither Eddie or Erica is better than the other. To some, the idea of living a reckless life is terrifying, and if they tried, fear would get in the way of their great ideas and could leave to nothing. To others, the idea of being a corporate ladder climber, slowly moving from one role to the next over decades, would feel like some kind of special hell.
Some Eddies are amazingly valuable to a business, especially in the operations space, because they are dialed in on what the business needs them to do now. Some employers love the dynamism that Erica brings to the company and can help to keep them innovating faster than their rivals, but keeping her happy can be tough.
Basically, do not be put off if you relate more to Eddie or Erica. They are ultimately both good people who are happy with how they live and what they contribute.
