Eccentrics are larger-than-life personalities who simultaneously confound us with their peculiar behaviors and dazzle us with their talent and intellect. They dare to be different, not just because they are, but also because they want others to notice.

An Eccentric is a walking costume party: maybe they never take off their red socks; perhaps they wear unforgettable glasses, or always have a hat and a cape. Icelandic singer Björk, she of the infamous Swan Dress, was once voted the most eccentric star in the world. Oscar Wilde, the brilliant writer and poet, while studying at Oxford, used to walk through the streets with a lobster on a leash.

Eccentrics want our attention and they get it. Not that long ago, if you were an Eccentric you were society’s outcast. Now people may aspire to be eccentric. For Eccentrics today there is possibility: the possibility of changing the world of today and tomorrow.

Think, for a world-famous example, of Lady Gaga, who once showed up at a gig enclosed in a giant egg and told us, “Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are.”

Other Examples
The Naked Cowboy, MisShapes, Richard Branson, Duchess of Alba

Strengths
Eccentricity is often associated with genius and heightened creativity and intellect

Weaknesses
Uncontrollable, obsessive behavior; a focus on minutiae or singular subjects to which the rest of society cannot relate

Passions
Collecting things, music, arts, and unusual clothing

Readings

Words
“Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.” -Anton Chekhov

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