It’s easy to dismiss eagerness and those who embody it as childish, naive, or inexperienced to the cruel ways of the world.

We used to call these people “Keeners” in high school, but that may have been a Canadian-ism. It may have even been a Saskatchewan-ism…

You might have called them nerds or some other regional variation on the concept of your own.

Whatever you called them, the fact of the matter is this: It was not cool to be too eager.

This made it a little difficult for those of us who actually liked school and learning, but also wanted to have friends and, ya know, not be made fun of…

We had to learn to hide that eagerness, tone it down, cover it up and even slather on a light coating of indifference, maybe even outright apathy if we really wanted to distance ourselves from the Keeners (cuz, gross…)

The problem took new shape, however, when we left school — and the many obvious opportunities for judgment by our peers — behind, but retained that adopted indifference to the world.

Over the years, we became more and more jaded toward any sign of initiative, of keen-ness, of interest beyond what’s considered acceptable within our chosen subculture of mostly-equally jaded peers.

We found ourselves looking down on the masses and mainstream, but also on pretty much any pursuit that others took on eagerly. Somehow we built ourselves up onto a pedestal of absolute authority on what’s ok to be excited or eager about.

This makes for a boring world.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things people take seriously that I think are stupid.

But I also recognize that there are more than a few pursuits that I enjoy with various levels of enthusiasm that other people could (and do) consider stupid.

A short list includes Ultimate Frisbee, Star Wars, podcasts, calligraphy, reading business books, reading fantasy books, reading science fiction books and vegetarianism. Oh and let’s not forget the massive number of personal development/self-help books I read.

The thing I’ve come to realize is that the more you learn about any given subject, the more interesting it becomes.

I may never be able to match a fanatic’s passion for bitcoin, acro-yoga, slam poetry, or modern pop music, but by learning even just a little bit about them, I almost always gain an appreciation and interest in them.

Time and again, I’m reminded that my best ideas and biggest breakthroughs are most often triggered by exposing myself to something new, something that I may have previously had no knowledge of, interest in, or care for.

A jaded world view keeps us from experimenting, wandering off the beaten path, exploring the whole wide world of all that we don’t already know (which is a lot), and as a result, our work stagnates.

Nothing magical can emerge from this state. It’s essential that as creators, entrepreneurs, and people looking to create change in the world that we push back against apathy and embrace our work with eagerness.

We’ll probably be judged, looked down on, maybe even ridiculed at times.

But there’s no other way to uncover our best work.

In the end, despite the stereotypes, it’s the Keeners who become the real Shit-Disturbers.

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