Sooner or later and from time to time you're going to need to do something tricky. It might be something as simple as dragging your belongings across the country in the middle of the winter, or as painfully difficult as delivering small packages of nitro-glycerin to a high Himalayan summit (although I can't think of a realistic reason why you ever would). When these challenging little times comes around, and I'm telling you that they will so don't act surprised, you need to pick your teammates carefully. I've noticed that some people seem to choose recklessly and it got me thinking; when the going is going to be unsavory for a good long while, who do you ideally want with you? I came to the conclusion that what you really want to judge your potential teammates based on, more than anything, is how well they deal with adversity. It's all fine and well to pick people that you think are a lot of fun, but the big question is are they still going to be fun when their job/life/brand-new-car is suddenly on the line? After some examination I found that, when it comes to dealing with adversity, there are three critically important types of people that you just don't want with you. They are Screamers, Panickers and the dreaded Superstars. They are bad for different reasons, but each is problematic in their own way. I present, for your consideration, this rogues gallery of dubious personalities, because dammit, I care.
Screamers - You know some of these - everyone does. When things go poorly they get mad, they start to yell, they lose composure. There are worse things to be, certainly, but a screamer is definitely not always an asset as they often do things that are decidedly not in the group's best interests. Take for instance a young man I saw in the Las Vegas airport. He was at the check-in desk, bag in hand, as I was getting onto an escalator and something apparently went wrong, preventing him from being able to get on his flight. I noticed him because he began screaming "Las Vegas Sucks!" at the top of his lungs while storming through the velvet rope barricades that are supposed to corral you into an orderly line. This particular screamer continued to bellow out snippets of wisdom as he walked to the front doors and out into the parking lot. Upon exiting the building he hurled his luggage onto the ground, hauled back his right leg, and kicked a garbage can with all his might. Part of the problem with this was the arrival of security guards, who probably made the trip more difficult for him and his friends. The bigger problem was that the garbage can in question was made of concrete and he was wearing open toed sandals. My last view, before the escalator carried me away, was of him leaping around like an enraged leprechaun, while clutching one foot. He was emitting a less than completely manly shrieking noise that faintly floated in through the large wall of windows at the front of the airport. Screamers are a lot of fun. Screamers are also known for a tendency to hurl expensive and/or critical pieces of equipment into places from which mere mortals cannot retrieve them. An unnamed associate, who was backcountry skiing for the first time recently, demonstrated a pretty good example of this particular behaviour. He became upset with a ski binding that kept popping off, causing him to crash. After one such crash, the unnamed individual unstrapped the ski and threw it on the ground in disgust. Since the telemark skis used for backcountry skiing don't have the little breaks on them that a regular downhill ski does, there was no longer any reason for this particular ski to remain at rest. The unnamed individual watched as his ski promptly sailed off down the mountain, vanishing into a large abyss of avalanche chutes. Did I mention that screamers are a lot of fun? |
Back to
 |