Analysing the Fetishisation of High-Performance Culture
By Sports Editor Jack Kelly
The Enlightenment, commonly referred to as the great “Age of Reason”- is defined as an era of European history where an emphasis on reason created sizable shifts in scientific, political, and philosophical discourse from the late 17th to the early 19th century. This period promoted secular ideals and prioritised reason and scientific thought over irrational thinking and superstition based on religion. Summed up rather succinctly by the historian Roy Porter this period’s influence on mindsets was “decisive in the making of modernity”. The Enlightenment brought secular thought to Europe and reshaped the ways people understood issues such as liberty, equality, and individual rights. Today those ideas serve as the cornerstone of the world's strongest democracies.
Fast forward a few hundred years, and it seems that there has been a philosophical, performance-based revolution or, in keeping with modern corporate parley, a rebranding of which has provided the western world with a new Enlightenment: The age of high-performance culture. Crucially, this movement now serves as the cornerstone of the world’s most successful self-improvement-based media which are mesmerizingly popular, particularly with sports people who are hungry for any advantage on their quest for success, or, in other words, for “that extra one per cent”.
A reductive, cynical view (my view) of the process behind creating the podcasts and books within the realm of high performance culture would be as follows: a relatively successful person in the world of sport, business, politics or whatever, has seen a niche wherein they can monetise their “wisdom”, thus they start a podcast by interviewing other relatively successful people or writing a book about “making your bed” or “cutting out the noise”. The cash starts rolling in once a moderate fanbase is established along with securing sponsors (typically Men’s grooming kits). Over time, this turns into sold-out live shows, a YouTube channel and, more than likely, a lucrative book deal about “mastering your kingdom” or something clever like that.
This is best exemplified by Jordan Peterson, the clinical psychologist and now, public intellectual whose YouTube videos and podcasts - describing the deep connections between neuroscience, psychology, mythology, and religion - have reached a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions. His book, 12 Rules for Life, has sold over five million copies worldwide and his global book tour has reached more than 250,000 people in 100 different cities. Moreover, Spanish newspaper Marca has noted that Peterson claimed in 2019 that he was earning $80,000 per month from his Patreon account, in addition to $35,000 per share and approximately $200,000 per month from his consulting/clinical practice.
Oftentimes, this wisdom could quite seamlessly feature in an episode of The Office. It is not hard to imagine the classic David Brent line “A good idea is a good idea forever” being the title of a chapter in a Tim Ferriss book (The American investor, podcaster and lifestyle guru has written six).
It is possible to argue that a fundamental strategy in making this form of media so appealing is the somewhat populist tactic of appealing to the “everyman” or the “common people” through a slightly dialled down use of post-truth where a rags to riches tale serves as the emotional hook of Act 1 of the podcast or book. The obvious contradiction here is these messianic figures are both effectively saying “I am one of you so if you listen to me and like and subscribe and please leave a comment then you too can be like me” while simultaneously creating a hierarchy of sorts due to their social position and leadership status.
Indeed, that is the view of a cynic but that is not to say that this distillation of this process is conspiratorial or necessarily far-reaching. For example, “The Diary of a CEO” podcast, hosted by Steven Bartlett (British-Nigerian entrepreneur), is no.1 in Ireland and no.2 on the UK charts. One might posit that this enormously successful podcast typifies the above point. This is evidenced by the introduction to the podcast in the show’s notes: “A few years ago I was a broke, university dropout, living in a studio-flat in a rough area. At 18 I started a company which would eventually become ‘Social Chain’- an industry leading marketing company. At 26 the company was generating $600m a year in revenue. At 27 I resigned as CEO and launched ‘The Diary of a CEO’ podcast with the simple message of un-filtering success and giving you the knowledge you need to create the life you want.” This is before he leaves a helpful link to his latest book The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life.
There you have it; the whole process succinctly presented. The emotional hook of being down and out before the substantial capitalistic rise through the corporate world just before deciding to re-centre his focus towards the seemingly pure intention of helping Joe Soap make a few bucks… Oh and here's this book of mine that you can buy from any good bookshop. Albeit this is just one example, but the cycle is ubiquitous.
Just consider how many times you have been told to read Shoedog by Phil Knight or been in a cafe and saw somebody reading a David Goggins book. Perhaps you have been in that awkward situation of listening to somebody parrot opinions that they learned upon graduation from the fictitious, pseudo-intellectual University of Jordan Peterson. This is not a criticism of those consuming this media and is certainly not intended as snobbery. Thankfully, we live in a democracy with a relatively balanced media landscape that allows people to read, watch and listen to whatever they want. The point is that this culture of high performance is everywhere and lucrative for those involved, but the question must be posed, is this subculture of constant productivity and results harmful?
Firstly, it is fair to assert that to truly comprehend the harmful effects of embracing this mindset, then it is rather pertinent to explore the consequences of the behaviour it encourages when an individual is faced with personal adversity. For example, let’s explore the Brentford and England forward Ivan Toney and his recent appearance on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast following his recent £50,000 fine and eight month ban from football for 232 breaches of the Football Association’s betting rules between 2017 and 2021.
Again, it must be acknowledged that this is not an all-out assault on Steven Bartlett, who does come across as an affable, open-minded person, rather this is an investigation of the effects of embracing high performance as gospel. Which, it seems that Ivan Toney along with countless other high-level sportspeople have. This is pretty simple, as mentioned earlier, sportspeople are naturally competitive and will go to extreme lengths to make themselves better athletes such as embracing Avant Garde methods of training and diet or utilising psychological tools to enhance performance. However, the goal here is finding the point when a constantly moving forward, never looking back mentality, which is a great tool for a sportsperson, becomes destructive in one's personal life; the skills are maybe not transferable.
In the case of Toney, it seems that this is a person in the throes of a gambling addiction facing his difficulties with a high-performance mindset. To put it bluntly, this situation is not equitable to a defeat on a Saturday before a game on a Wednesday, where the mind frame must be “that’s a defeat, we move on”; life is not football. In life, to truly see progress, it is imperative to scrutinise your mistakes and issues and, ultimately, pause and reflect. Furthermore, Toney has said that he is a gambling addict and, sadly, addicts deflect, deny, and delude themselves. It can be asserted that maybe here is the point where this mindset becomes damaging.
Significantly, in this interview with Steven Bartlett, Toney said that his family did speak to him about his gambling but that his “stubbornness” prevents him from speaking to his family about his addiction. Admittedly, Toney states that he must improve in this respect, but a close analysis of this self-assigned trait of stubbornness could be linked to this tunnel vision that is helpful in a sporting context but harmful in the real world.
Overall, the self-help industry is a phenomenon, and it is clear that a lot of people value it thus it would be rather parochial to write it off completely. However, that is not to say that its ideals should be applied dogmatically. To quote Napoleon Bonaparte, a keen observer of the enlightenment, “Laws that are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.”
