“When you grow up the bullies will work for you” was a disaster because weird people who thought they were smart people applied it to everyone who didn’t tolerate their crap rather than bullies and are now aggrieved that decades later they’re still losers rather than geniuses.
Plus a lot of bullies were children of bullies who had bullied their way up the hierarchy enough to nepo/old boy their bully child into a position of power/authority.
…plus even when the bullies work for you, you have to be able to manage them.
I feel there's more to unpack here, but I'll say it up front that I'm biased since I was one of the nerdy kids that were bullied. To me
1) a nerd doesn't have enough, not even social, but networking and also leadership skills, to be promoted. Which is a good thing TBH. I worked for a few of the