The Upside of Being an Introvert by Bryan Walsh - Essay Example

To prove his argument, Walsh uses examples based on evidence from scientific research and experiences from real life that is evident in contemporary society in various fields such as business, government, athletics, and other fields.

            Walsh starts by providing a succinct analysis of the difference between a person who is introverted and another one who is shy. The difference between these two people lies in the way they perceive social situations. A shy person will do their best to avoid a social situation while exhibiting characteristics associated with inhibition of behavior, which implies that they are poor judges of social situations. On the other hand, an introvert does not prefer engaging in social situations since they consider such situations socially taxing.

            Society identifies introverts as people who appear problematic and are at a high propensity of suffering depression, or even HIV. Consequently, society tends to associate introversion with negative aspects that discount the benefits of introversion, and especially in the workplace and other important spheres of life. Importantly, this societal norm fails to identify the importance of the cautious aspect that introverts highly exhibit. The aspect of being cautious helps introverts become better leaders than extroverts since they make better decisions as they are better listeners than extroverts.

            Walsh identifies the character of being an introvert as one that is inherent by either being inborn or inherited. In effect, introverts fake things that help them fit into society and become more social than their natural self, which is their introverted self. To accentuate the point on introversion being inborn, research on four-month-old infants identified children who were highly reactive to stimuli as likely to become introverts in future. After following up on these subjects after they grew older, the subjects that the research had identified as highly reactive grew to become introverted teenagers. In this case, high reaction to stimuli is associated with cautiousness, which is a fundamental characteristic of introverts.

            Despite society reproaching introverts while young, there are benefits associated with introverts. Unlike extroverts, who the idea of rewards arouses them over the prioritization of risks, introverts prioritize risks associated with a situation in order to make a decision. Hence, most successful businesspeople are introverts since they analyze the risks involved in every situation and make the right decisions since they are mindful of the risks involved. For this reason, Warren Buffet has become the world’s largest investor due to his introverted nature that helps him analyze the risks involved before making an investment decision. In matters related to governance, Obama, an introvert, has made better decisions than his predecessors Bush and Clinton (extroverts) since he can analyze a situation and identify potential threats that might risk his career. Hence, Bush went to war in Iraq while Clinton was involved in the Lewinsky scandal, events which put the careers of the two at-risk since they failed to analyze the potential risks involved and made the wrong decisions.

            Other than the characteristic of being wary of the risks involved, introverts acquire transcendent skills in various fields related to sports, music, and even in studies and in many other fields and professions. According to a researcher who grouped musicians in various categories, musicians who practised, most of the time, in solitude exhibited awe-inspiring skills to play in a public performance. Subsequent research with chess grandmasters, students, and athletes proved that practising in solitude provided individuals with intense focus that makes them develop experience and effective skills. Nonetheless, there is a threat to practising and working in solitude since the current workplace culture proposes teamwork as the most effective approach for productivity.

            With teamwork, which is usually enforced in the workplace, there is a danger of stifling creativity and independent thinking. Consequently, this is dangerous since suppressing creativity is counter-productivity to the objective of teamwork, which is to ensure productivity. In the workplace, leaders who are introverted blend well with employees who are independent thinkers while those that are extroverts blend with employees who easily take orders. In effect, this does not promote productivity in an organization. 

In this case, this is achieved through striking a balance of three different identities. These identities are the inborn identity, societal expectations, and personal desires.