Praise of Folly

Thinking outside the box is what also marked the life of Vittorio Tadei, starting from the choice of his company management and the definition of the corporate culture (something similar to the “misfits” cited by Steve Jobs), being aware that only thanks to a “pinch of insanity” he could build the big Teddy Dream. Thinking outside the box is a constant true in art as well as in visionary entrepreneurship, and the life parable of Teddy founder is a typical example.

Adjusting or not to the belief system is a matter being discussed since 1964, when the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco published “Apocalypse postponed”, one of his masterpieces. The Italian title, “Apocalittici e integrati” (which translates literally as “Apocalyptic and integrated”) refers to the two opposite ways of dealing with the rising consumer society and with its attitude, called “mass culture” by the semiologist, also conveyed by the new mass media. Within this contraposition, a man like Tadei would be certainly listed in the group of the apocalyptic, those who refuse to integrate into a pre-established system and, on the contrary, try to keep alive their critical thinking, to look at reality with their own point of view and communicate to others the meaning they see. Tadei never made do with following into the footsteps of his father’s career, he did not study what he was expected to, but he let himself be guided by his Dream, creating something new from scratch: a place where everyone can find their own place and express their true self.

At a closer look, apocalyptic people are all those who are not happy with the “status quo” that is imposed elsewhere, they ask themselves about the ultimate reasons that should guide their actions, regardless of what seems right to others, they are the ones who look up to aim at somewhere else, where most of the people is not able to look at. This is the vision: a rare, hard-to-find existential attitude, so much determining for those who wish to make a lasting mark, think out of the box of conformism, cover unknown roads, challenge the world. 

Thanks to his professional and personal experience, Vittorio Tadei proved to be a visionary, not settled with what he already had but willing to build something that could last in time, just like his Teddy actually did, a company with a 60-year and more long history. In order to build the Dream, Tadei used an alternative method: in the beginning, after establishing it in 1960s and up to the 1990s, he did not hire managers with a degree but a “motley crew” of young people, including former bakers, street vendors, accountants, anyone who had in common the same desire, the same loyalty to Vittorio and, most of all, the same existential predisposition to be unique. This was possible thanks to Vittorio’s ability not just to look at people and things, but to see their true essence.

Something reminding of the misfits Steve Jobs talked about in the 1990s, while he was launching Apple payoff “Think Different”. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels… The ones that see things differently. They aren’t fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo…”.

A true manifesto of critical thinking and nonconformism, which contains the meaning of the unforgettable lesson he gave in June 2005, in his Stanford speech: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”. His urge is the spiritual heritage left by one of the most influential and revolutionary men of the 20th century. Folly thus becomes a tool to think differently, in an original way. It is not meant as a denial of reason, but, according to the definition given by Erasmus in his “Praise of Folly” (1511), it is the temporary alteration of reason, the spiritual and intellectual disposition to look for truth beyond contingent reality, it is the existential motivation to think outside the too strict box of reason, which runs the risk of drifting into conformism. And conformism brings nothing and nothing great can come from it.

The opposite of folly is conformism, which is the enemy of ideas, as it was described by the Italian writers Pierpaolo Pasolini in many of his speeches, interviews and essays, and Alberto Moravia in his novel “The Conformist” (1970). According to Pasolini, the conformist par excellence is the one who, when facing uncertainty, avoids it from an emotional point of view in order to stay in his own comfort zone and avoid to be bothered. He is happy with the certainty offered him by the homogeneity of society, he follow the rules and is therefore accepted by the others. It is a defensive attitude, “stubborn certitude of the uncertain”, to quote the enlightening words of Pasolini. The conformist is scandalized by an attitude contrary or different from the one he regards as appropriate, because he does not understand things or he does not want to understand them because he is not enough brave to take the place of the one creating the scandal. 

“Out of the box”, besides what society expected from him, Vittorio was a great nonconformist and was brave enough to be guided by his Dream and by an existential restlessness that led him to think and act pushing the boundaries, where most of people does not look at and does not think of, where creating scandal simply means not to conform to mainstream thinking, as to avoid becoming “The Conformist”, as in the famous song by the Italian singsong writer Giorgio Gaber: 

"The conformist is a person who usually remains on the right side; and when he wants to think, he thinks on hearsay; perhaps as a good opportunistic he fits in without paying attention and lives in his own paradise.

The conformist is an all-rounded man who moves without consistency. 

The conformist trains to slip into the ocean of the majority. 

He is a very common animal who lives by cliché words.

At night, he dreams the dreams of other dreamers. During the day, his feast explodes, which means he is at peace with the world

and makes his way floating. The conformist.

The end result is a species always flying low on the surface. 

And he then touches the world lightly with a finger and feels accomplished.  He lives, and that is already enough”.