Eric Barker, M.B.A. 鈥�09
Extroverts are always more successful than introverts. Nice guys do finish last. And high school valedictorians go on to change the world. Eric Barker, M.B.A. 鈥�09, takes on these widely held beliefs in his first book听. At the end of May, it was sitting at #12 on the听Publishers Weekly听.
A one-time Hollywood screenwriter who became interested in human behavior after taking a negotiations class at the Carroll School, Barker uses research to back his insights into how success happens. 鈥淲e think these are mysteries but some of these things have been answered, and it鈥檚 in dusty academic journals or ivory towers,鈥� he said in an interview.
To make the point that good students are the types of people 鈥渨ho consistently do what they鈥檙e told鈥� but aren鈥檛 going to be the breakout successes, he turns to听Karen Arnold, associate professor at Boston College鈥檚 Lynch School of Education. Her听听followed 81 high school valedictorians and salutatorians after graduation and found that 90 percent wound up in professional careers, with 40 percent in the highest tier jobs.
鈥淏ut how many of these high school performers go on to change the world, run the world, or impress the world?鈥� Barker writes. 鈥淭he answer seems to be clear: zero.鈥� He quotes Arnold as saying that while valedictorians are 鈥渟trong occupational achievers,鈥� few become the visionaries of the future.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not simply one path for everybody, but we kind of make it sound like there is,鈥� said Barker, whose book was released last month by HarperOne. 鈥淵ou have to realize who you are.鈥�
So who is Eric Barker?
He is a 44-year-old single man living in West Hollywood who once freelanced for the Walt Disney Co.鈥攈e helped develop the Aladdin sequels. Growing up in Clementon, New Jersey, Barker鈥檚 father was a truck driver and his mother worked in medical billing. Neither parent went to college but they wanted their son to go. Barker earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 and then a master鈥檚 in fine arts from UCLA鈥檚 film program in 2002.
After freelancing for Disney, 21st听Century Fox, and other outlets for about a decade, he decided to attend the Carroll School. Being in the M.B.A. program, though, just confirmed for him that he was more suited to other kinds of work. The Carroll School inspired him nonetheless. The research he read about human behavior, personality styles, and judgment in connection with negotiating (the class was taught by former lecturer听) led him down the path to his book.
During the summer after his 2009 graduation, Barker started a听听about behavior, also named 鈥淏arking Up the Wrong Tree.鈥� The blog is syndicated by听听and distributed to nearly 300,000 subscribers through a weekly newsletter, which he launched in 2012. He is now also a sought-after speaker.
In the book, Barker sheds light on the introvert-extrovert controversy. It is now often said that extroverts with strong social networks have the advantage in their careers, and Barker doesn鈥檛 entirely disagree.
Consider an extrovert you鈥檝e never heard of, Paul Erdos. This brilliant mathematician鈥檚 schmoozing was unfettered by the fact that he was very strange. Erdos would show up uninvited at the door of another mathematician, and they would spend days and nights working through theorems together. Erdos received neither the Fields Medal in mathematics nor the Nobel Prize, but many in his orbit did鈥攁rguably a higher form of success.
Hold on though. What about Isaac Newton? His theory of gravity accomplished the feat of explaining 鈥渉ow the world works.鈥� But Newton was an extreme introvert; he had few friends, Barker tells us. Solitude, combined with obsessiveness (also an important trait) about why things drop, was key to his success.
On that question of the introverts and extroverts, Barker takes a characteristically nuanced view. Each has to find a unique path鈥攁nd make sure they鈥檙e not on the wrong path. 鈥淣atural schmoozers shouldn鈥檛 pursue laboratory research and bookworms might wanna dodge that sales job,鈥� he notes.
And what about formal education?
Matt Polly鈥檚 life story, as told in the book, nicely counters an assumption that education is the one true and shining path to success. Polly threw caution鈥攁nd an Ivy League education鈥攖o the wind at age 19 when he dropped out of Princeton University to travel to China and master kung fu. He infuriated his parents while failing to win the kung fu championship he鈥檇 trained for. But Polly did parlay his unorthodox quest into a contract to听, which led to the sale of the movie rights.
The advice to those looking for the secret to success might be summed up in the quote Barker chose to open his book: 鈥淣othing important comes with instructions.鈥澨�