IN THIS TOGETHER A DARK HORSE16 22

BY LAUREN STEELE

Todd Rose was no stranger to school suspensions by the time he got to the seventh grade at Sand Ridge Junior High School. Stink cated his now wildly successful career to is proving that while these paths are indeed irreplicable, individual success is not. bombs, at the time, were much more interesting than anything Mr. Peabody After working nearly a dozen minimum wage jobs in just a couple years was teaching during art class. By his senior year in high school, it was evident after dropping out of Layton High School (the last of them requiring him that very little — including stink bombs — could interest Rose anymore. to give enemas to people) and being on welfare with two kids relying on

The Hooper, Utah, native was kicked out of Layton High School with him, Rose went back to school in 1995. At the age of 22, he enrolled in a 0.9 GPA. “My principal told my parents, ‘There is literally no chance night classes at Weber State University, wore fake glasses to appear smarthe can graduate,’ so my parents were like, ‘OK fine, you got to get a job er, and did his best to play by the rules of due dates and good attendance. somewhere.’” He got a job stocking shelves at a department store for $4.25 But even with his back against the wall and all of his responsibilities to per hour. Shortly thereafter, his then-girlfriend (and now wife) found out keep his family afloat breathing down his neck, he still felt like traditional she was pregnant. classes were a bad fit. It wasn’t until he heard about the college honors

Most people wouldn’t be surprised if the next chapter in Rose’s story program at Weber State and the critical-thinking, debate-centric classes included a stint (or two) in jail before concluding within it that he thought that this whole “going back in a lackluster, melancholy dénouement. Instead, to school” thing was going to work. he ended up on faculty at Harvard University. He’s “It was after my first year there and I was sitting in authored three books (two of them bestsellers) and a large boring lecture hall when my friend sitting next founded the Laboratory for the Science of Individ- to me said, ‘Let me tell you, I got into the honors prouality at Harvard as well as a nonprofit think tank called Populace. And he’s dedicated his life’s work A GOOD DARK HORSE STORYLINE gram and it’s terrible, there are just debates. You can’t hide, there are no tests, you write and talk. There arto revealing how important individuality is to suc- IS IRRESISTIBLE en’t even right answers,’” Rose recalls. “And I thought, cess and how we need to restructure societal sys- BECAUSE IT ‘Are you kidding me, that sounds perfect.’ So I beetems to allow for individual opportunity instead of focusing on an “average” that doesn’t exist. Turns out, we all can have a chance to find success even SEEMS JUST AS IRREPLICABLE AS IT DOES IMPROBABLE. lined to the top of the hill where the honors program building was and asked for the director.” Upon seeing Rose’s unfinished high school diploma, in the most unlikely of situations. Rose believes we ACT score of 19 (a score of 24 is considered “good”), can all be dark horses, or someone who on paper and current average grades, the director said there shouldn’t succeed, but beats the odds and does. was no way Rose could be in the honors program. But

Rose will tell you that there was no “aha!” mo- Rose countered — by sitting in the honors building ment that turned his life around. No touching lobby all day after Marilyn Diamond, the honor’s colmade-for-television conversation with a men- lege secretary, told him, “If you want this, don’t take tor or teacher. No stint at a wilderness therapy program or a boarding no for an answer.” By the end of the day, the director let him in on a proschool that “scared him straight.” There was no morning that he woke bationary trial period. up and decided to change it all for the better. Instead, his change of fate “I appreciated the idea of finally having a good fit,” Rose says. “We are “emerged from a series of at first seemingly random, yet always interre- all distinct and there aren’t smart people and dumb people — we are just lated events.”It’s paying attention to these random events — and figuring stuck with the rules of a standardized system that says there are. On paper out what makes them not so random — that allows a person to find a dis- I should have been in remedial classes but if I would have just played along tinct pathway to success. I don’t think I would have even gotten through remedial math. Instead, I

A good dark horse storyline is irresistible because it seems just as irrep- graduated as honors student of the year in 2000 and got into Harvard for licable as it does improbable: Oprah Winfrey being fired from one of her graduate school with a 3.97 GPA.” first jobs in television, Bob Dylan losing a high school talent show, Walt Upon landing at Harvard, Rose kept meeting people who had the most Disney being fired from The Kansas City Star for lacking “imagination” unbelievable backgrounds — “and that encouraged my path,” he says. and having “no good ideas” — the list goes on. And what Rose has dedi- After graduating from Harvard with both a master’s degree and a Ph.D.,

ROSE BELIEVES WE CAN ALL BE DARK HORSES, OR SOMEONE WHO ON PAPER SHOULDN’T SUCCEED, BUT BEATS THE ODDS AND DOES.

Rose partnered with his longtime mentor Kurt Fischer in the Mind, “They prioritized personal fulfillment over society’s definition of success. Brain, and Education Program at the Graduate School of Education as a We all chase this view, like, ‘OK just be really great at what society valresearcher and professor. His desire? To finally get to study individuality ues,’ but these people thought about who they were and what mattered and figure out just how he — and many of the people he had met along the to them instead. They knew what made them tick and what motivated way — found unlikely success. them from a very individual perspective. It proves that there’s something

And thus, many years later, in 2012, the Laboratory for the Science of to knowing who you are and then finding the right fit.” Individuality at Harvard was founded. And soon behind it was Rose’s first “People who know me best would agree that I’m happier now than with big project studying unlikely folks who found success — the Dark Horse anything else I have done with my career,” Saul Shapiro says in “Dark Horse,” Project — in 2016. Rose decided it was time to figure out how people the the book Rose and his research partner, Dr. Ogi Ogas, published after conworld deems average — like him — flip a 180 and become exceptional. He cluding their study. “I enjoy what I do almost every day and I’m financially hosted focus groups with plumbers, business owners, engineers, presiden- secure. In the end, I figured out how to align my livelihood to my nature.” tial campaign directors and a slew of others who were successful in their Rose says he never learned more from any project in his life than he did respective fields. He recorded countless hours of interviews. He input data, from Dark Horse. “It changed my mind,” he says. In fact, it changed his studied charts and partnered with neuroscientists. mind enough to leave Harvard behind. “I don’t believe in the structure

But Rose’s research didn’t go as he expected it would. “When we start- of our educational institutions — they operate on a zero-sum model and ed the Dark Horse Project I thought I totally knew what we were going to create scarcity to breed competition and create ‘success.’ It was the exact find. Nope,” he says with a laugh. “Do each of these opposite of what my research — which Harvard was successful people have something in common? A funding — was finding about the true nature of sucpersonality trait? No. Most of them weren’t rebel- cess.” Rose deemed it hypocritical enough to leave it lious — their personalities were all over the place.” all behind. “I needed to practice what I preached,” he

“What kept emerging was how fulfillment and pur- says. “This required me to get out of academia.” pose was the most important value for each of these So, again, Rose is out connecting those seemingly people,” he says. “I thought, ‘That can’t be the answer, “IT’S RISKY random events of his life and his true nature to figthis is too squishy.’ I was a quantitative researcher my AND SCARY TO ure out what’s next. First, it was individuality. Now, whole career, but this was qualitative. Turns out, you PURSUE WHAT it’s how we can create new societal systems (like edcan learn a lot from listening to people.” MATTERS TO ucation) that allow for and encourage that individAt first, each dark horse story seemed random and fantastical. There was a high school dropout named Jennie who hated math — but she was curious, paYOU. BUT IT’S RISKIER NOT TO.” uality. He is currently working as the president and co-founder of Populace, a nonprofit think tank that works to find solutions to redistribute opportunity, tient, detail-focused, methodical and endlessly curi- so all people have the chance to live fulfilling lives in ous about what she could see in the sky. When she a thriving society. Rose is also finishing up his fourth was 36, she built herself a telescope on her back patio, book, “Collective Illusions,” which will be available became a self-taught astronomer, and discovered a later this year. The book details how collective socipreviously undetected asteroid. For her work, Jennie etal illusions become self-fulfilling prophecies. “It’s was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for shocking that no matter what the topic is we are her contributions to astronomy. There was an MIT Sloan School of Man- spectacularly wrong about the majority of America,” Rose says. “Big maagement graduate who struggled to get hired at age 50 after an unsuccess- jorities are convinced they are the minority. For instance, almost 70% of ful string of tech management jobs. His name is Saul, and he knew that he Americans want criminal justice to be rehabilitative but think that the enjoyed precision, alignment and working to solve problems just as much majority favors punitive criminal justice because that’s the model we have. as he disliked managing other people. So at age 57, he bought a brick and The whole point of the book isn’t to answer, ‘Are we being lied to?’ It’s mortar storefront with his tech career savings and opened his own Fibrenew more about us how we’re prone to conformity.” Upholstery Repair franchise and was named the best leather couch repair- His work at Populace and the research he is taking on for his “Collecman by New York Magazine. Soon, Rose and his research partners began to tive Illusions” project is something Rose says will occupy the rest of his catch on as patterns emerged. life’s work. Based on what he knows about himself, it’s where all of these

“There were a handful of things that led to a path in life that allowed a random events have led him. So, he’ll follow. “It’s risky and scary to pursue person to become successful in their own distinct definition,” Rose says. what matters to you,” he muses. “But it’s riskier not to.”