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Debilitating money personality 4: The Outsider
Always on the fringes, operating outside the ruling capitalist system, stands the Outsider. The Outsider has a negative perception of the type of work and working conditions that society rewards and therefore wants no part of it. She is often artistic or produces work that is appreciated by a very small niche market. At the extreme, she doesn’t really care whether anyone appreciates her talents and will reward them, because it’s her life and she spends every day as she pleases.
No wonder money is not exactly flying into the Outsider’s bank account.
The Outsider is at heart a child rebelling against the reality of a world in which none of us is completely self-sustaining and would always need to exchange our skills and talents for the goods and services of others. She may think that, by being ‘true to herself’, she will escape the stereotypical movie-version midlife crisis of the corporate executive who has spent his entire adult life doing work he despises to build up material wealth and please others. The Outsider does not realise that her midlife questions may eventually look like this: What if I really made an effort to find fulfilling work that also paid well? What would it have been like to be financially successful and secure at my age? Have I been avoiding the real world and its battles? Does my courage as a non-conformist have a shadow, namely the cowardly avoidance of a challenging and competitive professional life?
The Outsider is caught up in a false dilemma, a belief that her work has to be either fully commercialised or completely authentic. Dividing her time optimally between paying clients or commissioned work, and ‘own time’ to play and create is the key to the Outsider’s financial and emotional well-being.
Tags: artist, authentic work, false dilemma, Money personality, outsider
