The first step in fixing a thing is to know what a thing is.
Over the years, I’ve done countless psychological tests to try and figure out who and what I am. My strengths, my weaknesses, where I am awesome and where I fall down. Sometimes these give me a map to improvement and sometimes if I am honest I use them as a path to excuses. “It’s the way I’m built.” or “That’s because I am an XYZ-type person”.
Over the years of testing myself and trying to figure other people out I have observed four distinct business personalities.
These types often influence how we show up in the world. The good news? Once you recognize your type, you can adjust and improve. We are all capable of improving no matter who we think we are.
Let’s dive into the four categories.
Personality 1: Do Nothing
- The “Do Nothing” personality is more harmful than it sounds. These people have stopped moving forward. They’ve lost hope, enthusiasm, or interest in their business or life. They believe there’s nothing left to do, learn, or grow into. It’s a dangerous mindset. If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing. Remember, you either grow or die.
Personality 2: Retreat
- The “Retreat” personality consists of people who are shell-shocked by negative experiences. They haven’t learned from setbacks. Instead, they are traumatized. Afraid of more future failures, they give up. Because these folks don’t iterate on past failures, they miss out on the upside loop of testing, failing, learning, and trying again. We all know deep down that… “The more you execute, the more you fail. The more you fail, the less you care. The less you care, the more you execute.” (And that’s the path to success).
Personality 3: Reasonable
- “Reasonable” people do just enough to seem like they’re trying. They stay in the game but never excel. For many, this is fine “enough” is winning. But for those who want more, it’s not sufficient. They get overtaken by those willing to go the extra mile. They settle, never becoming the best versions of themselves and secretly worrying about the potential regret of what could have been.
Personality 4: Unreasonable
- The “Unreasonable” personality seeks out bigger problems to solve. They know more problems mean faster progress. These champions take massive action. They are the “Dreamers of the Day,” they are dangerous acting on their dreams with open eyes. “Taking massive action means making somewhat unreasonable choices, and then following these up with even more action.” These are terminators who will not settle or stop until they get what they want. They lay waste to anything in their path.
Now as much as their seems to be a bias towards being Unreasonable over Reasonable. Know that “Reasonable’s” are often happier than “Unreasonable’s” it all depends on where you want to draw your line in the sand.. One thing we can say is that you do want to get yourself out of camp one or two as fast as you can.
Which type are you? And more importantly, which type do you want to be?
