Is your personality sabotaging your business?

12 replies
Do you know what your MBTI is? It stands for Myers-Brigg Type Indicator, and it's probably the world's most accurate and widely-used psychometric evaluation.

While not exactly the same as the "official" version, you can take a pretty accurate version of the test online, right here.

There are some interesting insights from this test. A quick Google of your four-letter identifier will give you a lot of resources that describe your personality type and the effects it has on your business.

For example, I'm an INTJ.

I prefer to work by myself, prefer intellectual pursuits, tend to observe people, perfectionist, skeptical, hard to impress, analytical, not spontaneous, ruthlessly self-critical, strives for competence.

More than any other style, my type lives in our work. Work is work, and play is work. Idleness is the worst kind of punishment. I tend to focus on the future, regarding the past as already gone, all that matters about the past is using it to find directions for the future. Repeating an error is unforgivably stupid. I'm very self-confident, and easily able to make decisions, a natural brainstormer, but everything has to pass the critical, "Does it work?" test.

Under stress, I become a perfectionist, stuck in my compulsive routines and generally planning too far ahead. With my type, I'm very prone to make detailed, long-range plans and be prepared for every contingency, but not as likely to just spontaneously make something happen.
I have to be careful about singlemindedness, and I need to make a conscious effort not to come off as cold or distant, both online and offline. Under stress, I also focus on tiny little details that I ordinarily wouldn't have. The more extreme the stress, the more I'll act impulsively and start many different projects, research lots of irrelevant information, and express my emotions in ways that harm my personal relationships. That's just the extreme, though -- I don't usually let things get that bad, and my personality type is great at finding a vision and achieving it.

Others may see what is and wonder why; INTJs see what might be and say "Why not?!"

With this knowledge, I know that I need to work on loosening up and being more spontaneous, and need to stop planning so much. Plans are useless if you don't follow through with them! I need to check up on myself frequently so I don't find myself wasting time lost in thought. I think I'm going to start setting hourly or half-hourly timers when I work so that I'll be interrupted if I'm wasting time, and I'll have a chance to take a breath and refocus.

It's easy to see how all this stuff is gold for those interested in self-improvement.

Note: I'm not providing links to any specific sites with descriptions, because I don't want people being lazy and just posting their type or copy-pasting a description. Before replying, take some time to actually think about whether it describes you, and how you can use the information to benefit your business.

So, what's your type?
#affects #business #mbti
  • Profile picture of the author Shrike
    Just found this thread as I was looking for any INTJs that do internet marketing. I've spend many hours reading on MBTI. I'm pretty sure I'm an INTJ myself as I can relate best to having the imaginative Introverted Intuition as my main function, backed up by Extraverted Thinking checking for objectivity.

    Doing online tests can give you a quick impression of what type you are. However many people still get confused about whether they are a Perceiver or a Judger. Especially with Internet Marketing I believe that even some J types can be susceptible to procrastinating and think they are P's.

    To overcome this confusion, it helps to understand the individual functions like what Introverted and Extraverted Intuition means, but that would be too much to get into in this post.

    Like typical INTJs I always come up with ideas on how to improve my life. I love researching to find the best and most efficient ways to do things. I enjoy talking to open-minded individuals and perhaps less stereotypically INTJ I am quite approachable and down to earth.

    When I'm under stress I can come up with all kinds of reasons why things may go wrong, get obsessive about details or I get distracted with things that are more clear and certain to me, like playing a video game... I also easily get bored with repetitive work that I'd rather outsource.

    I would love to get to know some INTJs that want to make a passive income online. So if you're an INTJ reading this, don't hesitate to reply to the thread or pm me!
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    • Profile picture of the author Joe Mobley
      Zabrina,

      I took the test and it says that I'm ESTJ, the supervisor. I think I'm more ADHD but I could be wrong. (But that wouldn't be very ESTJ of me. )

      Joe Mobley
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  • Profile picture of the author Tainted Seraphim
    I'd say be very careful about attaching any kind of label to yourself. The moment you say to yourself, "I am X," then you've immediately put up all kinds of barriers that limit and control your behavior, confining you to a narrow spectrum of what you could potentially achieve.
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  • Profile picture of the author BenKJunya
    This is really interesting. Where can I take my MBTI test? Is it available at a college or in a psychology setting? How did everyone take the test?
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    • Profile picture of the author ctadvert
      Originally Posted by BenKJunya View Post

      This is really interesting. Where can I take my MBTI test? Is it available at a college or in a psychology setting? How did everyone take the test?
      The link is in the first comment thats says RIGHT HERE in blue hope this helps.

      I did'nt do a test i always hated tests but sounds good but i do agree labelling yourself is an immediate barrier i@d prefer to learn what i am myself.
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      OK, so I did it, I finally got over myself.

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  • Profile picture of the author Shrike
    @Joe Mobley: Have you read descriptions of other types and was ESTJ the one that sounded most like you? From a survey I read, NP types are most inclined to have ADHD where as I believe STJs may have OCD, since STJs are champs with details. In my experience the following is very accurate about ESTJs.

    "They live in the present, with their eye constantly scanning their personal environment to make sure that everything is running smoothly and systematically. They honor traditions and laws, and have a clear set of standards and beliefs. They expect the same of others, and have no patience or understanding of individuals who do not value these systems."

    A good description of the ESTJ can be found here: personalitypage.com/html/ESTJ.html

    @Tainted Seraphim: You have a point. Some people may take the description and read about their weaknesses and think it's no longer their responsibility, since they can scapegoat it on their inborn personality type.

    However there is plenty of evidence that show that people prefer different styles of cognition. This also ties in with measured brain activity in various parts of the brain. We all have a preferred style of perceiving, which is either Intuition or Sensing (relation between objects or the objects themselves). And we also have a preferred way of decision making, which is either Thinking or Feeling (impersonal logic or personal values).

    Each of these four processes can be directed inwardly (introverted), which means it's conceptualized subjectively in terms of the self, or externally (extroverted), which means it's conceptualized objectively in terms of not-self.

    An INTJ for example, prefers Introverted (I) Intuition (N) the most. Introverted Intuition likes to play with perception itself and changes the way you see something in order to get new perspectives or even predict future outcomes. Introverted Intuition in an INTJ is backed up by Extraverted Thinking (T) in order for the individual to be able to function in the real world, by checking Introverted Intuitions subjective insights with facts and measured results. Since the INTJ's decision making process is Extraverted the INTJ seeks closure in the outside objective world and for that reason is called a Judger (J) as opposed to a Perceiver (P) who's Extraverted function is always a Perceiving function and for that reason likes to keep their options open. And that's how the 4 letter code is created!

    Any type also has a weaker 3rd and 4th function that work together with the first two. With the INTJ, the third function is Introverted Feeling that attempts to keep Extraverted Thinking's decisions morally in check and Extraverted Sensing that's necessary for Introverted Intuition to have data points that Introverted Intuition needs to make connections at all.

    If you're curious to learn more about MBTI, I highly recommend reading the article here: personalitycafe.com/cognitive-functions/24032-intro-function-theory-more-detailed-descriptions-each-function-attitude.html

    @BenKJunya: There are various tests you can do online for free, like the one here: similarminds.com/jung.html. I've seen that for some courses you need to have an official background in Psychology, however you can learn a whole lot from either going over to forums like personalitycafe or reading various books on the topic.
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    • Profile picture of the author larrydcook
      This is very interesting INTJ was my score results! I have seen many personality test This one I will have to study a little more! Thanks for posting this thread!

      Larry "Pappy" Cook
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  • Profile picture of the author buckeyes09
    Interestingly, I'm one of the archetype stereotype entrepreneurs. I would say my personality helps.
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    Christian

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  • Profile picture of the author Saito
    I'm ENTJ all the way! The Fieldmarshall...I've taken the test several times over the years, so this must be my destiny to organize and command everything.

    I found a Personality Forum once where I could chat with other ENTJ's and it was like "I'm not crazy! Everyone else here is constantly looking for better, faster, smarter ways to do everything! It's not just me!"

    Knowing your type is helpful because you can see the reasons WHY you do certain things and then find a way to build a business around your strengths and preferences.
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  • Profile picture of the author Boxer123
    Very Interesting Zabrina
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  • Profile picture of the author PrestonSr
    I think I saw a similar application on Android
    but I can quite remember the name

    You answer abt 50 questions...which makes you very anxious for success
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  • Profile picture of the author eternalsongbird
    No, I have not faced this kind of problem yet.
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