I’ve always been a huge fan of the Marx Brothers. I can’t estimate how many productive hours I’ve burned in front of the screen soaking them up. One thing about the Marx Brothers – everyone remembers Groucho, Harpo and Chico. Only the true fans remember Zeppo. Why? Zeppo didn’t have a schtick.

A schtick is a theme or recurring element that defines someone. Groucho had the slouch, the cigar and the lascivious eyebrows. Chico had the fake Italian accent, his “shooting the keys” piano style and, well, his idiocy. Harpo had his silence, pantomime routines, harp playing and that childlike mindset. Zeppo… well, he was just normal.

Sometimes having a schtick helps you to stand out in a crowd. Particularly when you’re young and struggling with identity issues it helps to have something that’s uniquely yours to build your reputation around. Some people develop them naturally, a very few purposefully create one.

In your school years, you can probably identify the people who already have their schtick down pat. The jock, the clown, the “cool dude”, the sweet girl, the tramp, the loser… you can probably name those people with ease. To most of my acquaintances, I was “the guitar player”, or the “smart kid”.

You can create your own schtick, just by emphasizing a part of your personality or behaviour and staying true to it. Naturally it helps to have an inclination toward the behaviour, but most everything is within reason. By picking something that sets you apart and developing it, you can really enhance your reputation and help to fill out that mental self image you’re so desperate to cultivate in your teens.

Some great schticks to develop would be

  • Reliability
  • Integrity
  • Honesty
  • Go-Getter
  • Finishing what you start
  • Love

Those are the kind of reputations that you can proudly bear through life. I can say from experience, having the reputation of being “the smart kid” bagged me two jobs in my adult life. One I didn’t even have to interview for – I was hired on reputation alone.

Growing up and finding yourself is tough, so you may find that you shoot a little lower than some of the ideals I’ve pushed on you. And that’s OK. Even though reliability will serve you better later in life, it doesn’t have the excitement of some other schticks when you’re young.

Just make sure that the schticks you gain you can live with in the future. In your later years, you’ll be able to easily identify people you know who tried to change their schtick unsuccessfully. The “smart kid” who tries to become the “party kid”. Or the stoner that tries to put on a respectable face later in life. You never quite outgrow your reputation – it always comes back to haunt you.

So, who do you want to be?