The Most Interesting Man in the World.
You’ve seen the commercials. The campaign has been successful in terms of getting people talking about the character and his antics. I’m not sure if Dos Equis is selling more beer, but it would appear that is has been for the last couple of years.
So we’ll call The Most Interesting Man in the World a success.
Today I was thinking about this concept of being interesting and I came to the conclusion that some of the most interesting people in the world – real and fictional – are flawed.
Interesting People are Flawed
I have to start out by saying this post is partly inspired by a thread on Quora – Which epic fictional characters show classic symptoms of psychological disorders (you may need to login to view that link).
It’s extremely interesting to think about this concept. Here are some of the most iconic characters in all of fiction and they’re all flawed.
There are two takeaways from this realization.
First, when writing blog posts it’s important to be interesting. Not only do we have to be flawed ourselves as the writer (see the second point below), but we have write about other people that are flawed. This can be tricky because we don’t want to be negative all the time. I think it’s more about embracing the flaws in everything others do and showcase how they’re succeeding because of those flaws or in spite of them. That type of writing leads to interesting stories.
Second, we have to embrace our own flaws. Nobody is perfect. If you think you are you’re in denial and probably narcissistic. So there you are. You now have two flaws to embrace. It’s really a difficult thing to do. For some reason we’re wired to think of ourselves as perfect. Maybe it’s an evolutionary mind trick we use to get through life being happy. I don’t know.
Just thinking about myself (narcissism?) I can say that it’s difficult to focus on flaws. I’m going to try to write with this in mind because it makes for more interesting stories.
I just finished reading Rod Stewart’s autobiography. The man was very forthcoming about his transgressions and issues with drugs, alcohol and trashing hotel rooms. He made a lot of people sad and angry over the years. That couldn’t have been easy to talk about and I’m sure he was pushed to do it, but it made for a really interesting story and you feel more connected to the man after reading it.
It’s that crazy?
The man is flawed and we feel more connected to him because of it. That in itself is interesting.
You know now that I thin about it maybe even The Most Interesting Man in the World is flawed. He has a thirst for adventure. He seems borderline overconfident.
Maybe those are a few of his flaws and why we find him so interesting.