1. You can only minimally change who you are or how you operate. Personality is pretty stable throughout the lifespan. Run your business the best way you know how and can. Delegate the rest.
When you know and understand areas of personality strength, you can lean into those and delegate the rest of your business. Someone who is super high in Big 5 trait openness but low in Big 5 trait conscientiousness may be best suited coming up with ideas for the business' future and delegating the day to day operations to someone higher in trait conscientiousness.
Maybe you are not super high in trait extraversion and you struggle talking on the phone. Maybe you are not super outgoing or cheerful and selling people on your ideas or products 1-on-1 is a struggle. Perhaps you are high in trait Agreeableness and read people's needs very well. Maybe you become an expert copywriter and turn your persuasive ideas into sales.
2. Lean into the sub-aspects of "Conscientiousness" you are strong in.
Conscientiousness is the Big 5 or HEXACO trait most correlated with future earnings. The trait "Conscientiousness" has 6 sub-parts to it according to the HEXACO or NEO-PI-R model. These traits all correlate with each other but if you are higher in one or two aspects of conscientiousness, lean into those. So many entrepreneurs and gurus preach "hustle culture" and while "hard work" is one aspect of Conscientiousness, it is less than 20% of the equation.
The 6 aspects of conscientiousness are self-efficacy, orderliness, dutifulness, self-discipline, achievement striving and cautiosness.
Perhaps you lean into your perfectionism or orderliness. Maybe you are extremely detailed in your work and your sales page is well thought out. Perhaps you are always prepared and you discipline yourself well. Maybe you are extremely motivated to succeed and you take action quickly.
Whichever aspect of conscientiousness is strong, lean into that. It's your key to success.
3. If you are high in "Openness", CREATE! ALWAYS CREATE! (but don't forget to read)
People high in openness are generally more creative. But, like anything else, creativity is somewhat of a skill. If you are naturally creative, learn to create more effectively. If you are not very creative temperamentally, train yourself through immersion.
Your magnum opus takes years. Picasso created close to 100,000 paintings. Quality over quantity is somewhat flawed. True creativity takes years and it's a Pareto distribution amongst your creative work. If you create 100 pieces of art, maybe only 20 will see the light of day. Of those 20, maybe 4 will make a ton of money and 1 of those 4 will account for nearly all sales.
Creativity is sometimes described as an "aha" moment. So how do we define those? "Aha" moments are simply connections. You connect things when you expose yourself to more things. If you want intuition to take the wheel, first learn to steer the wheel.
You steer the wheel when you educate yourself. There's that phrase that you are a combination of the 5 people closest to you. Sometimes those 5 people are a book or podcast away, not a phone call...
4. Lean into the sub-aspect of Openness you are strongest in.
Openness to experience is the Big 5 or HEXACO trait most correlated with creativity.The trait "Openness" has 6 sub-parts to it according to the HEXACO or NEO-PI-R model. Although all the traits correlate pretty highly with one another, you may be stronger in one or two. Lean into those.
Perhaps you are extremely imaginative but not as adventurous. Perhaps you enjoy thinking up daydreams but those daydreams don't include skydiving. Lean into the imagination and perhaps leave the skydiving to simply inspire you.
Perhaps you are extremely interested in intellectual discussion but not as interested in art or music. Chances are you'll enjoy both but in this scenario, maybe you are more scientific and less artistic. Lean into that.
5. Learn your common thread insecurity or fear and embrace it situationally.
A common thread insecurity comes from the fourth function according to MBTI and Jung. The fourth function is opposite your first. For example...
Elon Musk is an INTP (in my estimation). The logical genius of his "Introverted Thinking" (Ti) will continue to surprise you and reap him rewards but his extraverted feeling or fear of whether or not he is making the world a better place keeps pushing him to Mars...
Musk's fourth function is Extraverted feeling and it is why so many of his projects are about the "future of humanity". He is a genius in his thinking but he fears that his thinking is hurting others and it pushes him to extreme and seemingly unattainable goals that may benefit the world.
You want to find your common insecurity and attach it to a function and then overcome that function. It will make you happy, fulfilled and push your towards a better, more integrated "you".
6. Understand how the unconscious or "shadow" is motivating you and seek its light, not its darkness.
Have you ever gone to dinner and you can't seem to ignore that screaming child a couple booths down?
That screaming child doesn't understand social cues or norms yet so it screams not undertsanding that is not ok at a fancy restaurant. You get upset and since you are spending far more than the table with the screaming child, the table with the screaming child is asked to leave.
Now let's say you go back to the restaurant and the same child is there. He is now screaming less and you go over to the table and compliment the parents for their job well done the past year.
The child is better behaved but has that crying truly gone away?
In the opinion of the shadow - No. The child has just better learned to control his impulses but the shadow still remains. It is imperative that we learn to work with our shadow rather than simply let it ruin our lives.
The key to controlling the shadow is to make it aware. You can't control it but it sure can control you. Learn the unconscious functions and lead them to prosperity.
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