Are You Living a Rare Breed, Unconventional Life?
Or One That's Boring As F***
We live in a world where being seen and heard is all the rage. From Tik Tock enthusiasts to business thought leaders to celebrities and professional athletes, standing out requires us to rock our best selves in an authentic way.
The anthem of the times? —“Just Be You!”
In “Rare Breed: A Guide To Success For The Defiant, Dangerous and Different, a book by the award-winning founders of the brand and digital powerhouse Motto, authors Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger deliver a high octane message to the rebellious thinkers, relentless perfectionists, strange weirdos, and spellbinding orators of the planet…….
“Squeeze every ounce of talent from yourself and everybody around you until one day, your potential is realized, and you change the world.”
Upon stumbling upon this book, I immediately thought to myself “Bonnell and Hansberger are my kinds of peeps.” They appeal to my “contrarian nature as a Black, Libertarian, Taoist non-conformist with nomadic proclivities.
Outside of the likes of heroes like Black intellectual Dr. Cornel West, the late foodie extraordinaire Anthony Bourdain, and singer Samantha Gongol of Marian Hill, I find most celebrities and everyday people I cross paths with boring as fuck. So reading this book was mellifluous to my mind, arguably the most personally impactful book I’ve read this year.
The biggest takeaway I walked away from it with?
That I am boring as fuck too!
If I want to become more of a clanging cymbal in the world in terms of my Great Books, Great Minds mission of Fueling Human Connection, One Book At A Time, I need to up my own badass game.
Pure and simple
The introduction to Bonnell’s and Hansberger’s book Rare Breed comes out a blazing comes out a blazing, offering this prescriptive for following an unconventional path
“If You Want to Succeed, You Have to Own Who You Are”
Recounting their own series of trapeze acts in business and life, the authors shared this in the book:
“We were learning the hard way that vision, dangerous thinking, and defiance of the status quo come with a price. It made the first several years of building Motto a monstrous roller coaster. On one hand, we had nothing to lose. It was fun, real, raw, we loved every minute of it, and we helped cool companies do amazing things. But on the other, our guts hurt from the punches. We bounced checks, slept at the office, experienced soul-crushing defeats, and Sunny got so thin from stress and anxiety that her family staged an intervention. Most of all, we were lonely.”
And then there was this…..
“After admitting life had kicked out every ounce of heart left for the business, we had a conversation with Sunny’s dad, one of our greatest mentors. He warned us: “You two are a rare breed. Not everyone will love you. Some may hate you. But the ones who get you will never forget you. Now, dust yourselves off and get back in that saddle.”
Introduction aside, in the ensuing chapters, Bonnell and Hansberger launch into a meteor shower of wisdom, what they affectionately refer to as virtues. Like an espresso jolt at Peet’s Coffee, they take readers on a dizzying adventure through the book’s sections —
Rebellious, Audacious, Obsessed, Hot Blooded, Weird, Hypnotic, Emotional
The pages offer a rude wake up call to flaneurs and those who are half-stepping it through life. The authors note in the book:
“First, remember that the Virtues alone don’t make you a Rare Breed. You need to use them to inspire others and build a better future. By awakening your potential, you’ll make hope viral for all the gifted outliers who will follow in your footsteps.”
“Second, being a Rare Breed is an act of soaring, unrelenting belief. There’s more to being exceptional than wanting to be. When it comes to launching your moonshot, you’ve got to believe that you have what it takes.”
As Bonnell and Hansberger vividly hammer in with this short refrain