Introverts’ Out-of-the-Spotlight Strategies

One more look back at lessons from four years of posts: strategies famous introverts have used to avoid the direct glare of society’s spotlights.

In studying the biographies of introverts who have become celebrated in the arts, sciences and the world of entertainment, I’ve noticed some fascinating patterns in how many of them reconciled public recognition of their achievements with their desire for an unpressured, private life out of the spotlight.

Here are six strategies to consider if success makes you want to retreat to being a back-office kind of person.

1. Use a pseudonym. The author we know as Lewis Carroll carried on with his life as an Oxford don under his real name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He enforced a separation between those two identities by refusing mail addressed to Lewis Carroll at his faculty office and not answering to that name in person. This helped preserve his accustomed sense of privacy and personhood. Some people accomplish a similar separation by going by two different variants of their name, professionally and personally. J.D. Salinger, the acclaimed author of Catcher in the Rye, was “Jerry” in private life.

2. Cultivate a zone of privacy. Without bodyguards, you can create a social wall of protection by moving to a sparsely settled area with an ethos of neighborly respect. David Cornwell (whom most of us know by his spy-author pen name, John Le Carré), said his farmer neighbors in Cornwall, England didn’t give a hoot about his fame. Salinger enjoyed much the same local privacy in rural New Hampshire, where his neighbors would mischievously misdirect tourists or journalists trying to find his house.

3. Decline interviews. Many well-known introverts who went all in on their profession or craft wanted – and achieved – all out when it came to media attention. This included such Hollywood greats as Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo and Alfred Hitchcock. They regarded demands from the press as overstepping into their ability to enjoy life away from the movie studio. A cynic might point out that such refusal increases the mystique swirling around them. But with power and determination, introverts can get away with this strategy.

4. Feign or exaggerate illness. For the last several decades of his life, Charles Darwin experienced a baffling array of symptoms that kept him home most of the time. This provided a socially acceptable excuse for him to concentrate on his scientific work. In his autobiography he wrote: “Ill-health, though it has annihilated several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society and amusement.” Florence Nightingale’s career showed much the same trajectory. She declared herself an invalid in 1857, more than 50 years before she died, and did not hesitate to cancel appointments with the excuse of a flare-up when she had urgent tasks to finish.

5. Designate a spokesperson. Both Darwin and Nightingale also engineered more time and comfort for themselves by having others engage with the public on their behalf. Thomas Henry Huxley became known as “Darwin’s bulldog” for his fierce advocacy of the theory of natural selection in lectures and debates. Darwin did his part, though, with vigorous letter-writing campaigns that he could manage from home. Likewise, Nightingale used writing to advocate for her favorite causes and draw up proposals. Then she would hand her issue off to some cabinet minister she knew through family connections for him to put her proposal into action.

6. Concentrate on intimate settings. Nineteenth-century composers Frederic Chopin and Franz Schubert couldn’t bear the exposure of performing in large concert halls. Yet both introverts built formidable reputations during their lifetimes by, in essence, sharing their music in patrons’ living rooms. Chopin’s contemplative, moody music would actually have gotten lost from a distant stage, but perfectly fit a salon. And at Schubert’s small “Schubertiads,” friends and acquaintances would read poems, sing songs at the piano and play solo pieces for one another. Today’s equivalent might be someone preferring to shine from home on YouTube to speaking from a podium at conferences – or just sharing clips on Facebook.