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I get myself into trouble a lot.
My entrepreneurial mindset is a buzz-kill at parties. I keep talking about how to streamline the buffet line or attract new partygoers. My mind is a constant swirl of ideas, and it can be a challenge to communicate those ideas to people who are not quite on the same page ... or in the same book or possibly in the same library system.
I'm serious.
It's an illness.
It's a cognitive condition.
I need help.
Several months ago, a brain scientist told me there is something weird about "the founder's brain" and he had proof, but then he backed off of the assessment and changed his tune. I'm not sure if the diagnostic equipment was faulty that day or if what he had said was a bit of a stretch.
Yet, I know what I know. Being entrepreneurial means you can never rest.
You can't go to bed at night thinking about the taco wraps you had for lunch or the oil change your car needs in the morning. You're stuck in a loop of ideas, planning, execution, and reward. You think about how to improve taco wraps and how to speed up oil changes. This can happen to me at Perkins or at the airport terminal; you don't need to be in an office setting. You can't turn it off.
Friends and family look at you with a weird expression.
"What are you thinking about right now?" they say.
"There must be a way to save the Old Country Buffet," you reply, unintentionally creating a poem. (This really happened to me. True story.) They go back to their fried steak.
The good news is that this kind of thinking can create Facebook or the iPhone. It can become a 16-year-career in journalism. It's a drive and a verve mixed into one.
Now, thankfully, Myers-Briggs has admitted this is a distinct personality type.
Well, almost.
A new study completed this year shows that certain personality types are drawn to an entrepreneurial mindset. For the Myers-Briggs fans out there, you may already know the Intuition and Perceiving (N and P) personality types. The study found those folks have more of an entrepreneurial nature than the Sensing and Judging types.
From the study: "The entrepreneurs in the group showed a significantly higher orientation for creativity, risk-taking, impulsivity, and especially autonomy than did non-entrepreneurs. Competitive ambition did not distinguish between those who were or were not entrepreneurs, but did relate to those who saw themselves as more entrepreneurial. People with a preference for extraversion, intuition, thinking, and perceiving tended to show greater levels of entrepreneurial orientation."
That's a pretty bold statement, because it creates a unique classification within Myers-Briggs--a propensity toward one particular business mindset.
And it explains a lot about me. I'm an INFP, but more than anything, I tend to be entrepreneurial. I like to take risks. It's in my DNA.
Honestly, I'm feeling better about myself already.
How about you?
See original article on Inc. Myers-Briggs Just Discovered There Is a Personality Type for Entrepreneurs |