The Value of Entrepreneurial Personality Types

The Value of Entrepreneurial Personality Types

Type versus Archetype

Honestly, personality profiling is a new topic for me.  This being said, I am enjoying researching the space in hopes of generating a stronger framework for the Entrepreneurial Personality Types™ model. In my research, I uncovered the differences between a personality type and an archetype. The basic definition for the archetype is essentially a prototype which is patterned or copied from the original. This version becomes a personality model. Although initially, Plato defined a number of archetypes, Carl Jung created the majority of psychological archetypes. The hero, for instance, is an example of a well-known archetype. Archetypes are interchangeable and it is possible to fit into more than one example at any given time. An archetype is typically a role to play. Although in earlier writings I used the words archetype and type interchangeably, they are not. For more information on archetypes you can follow this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

Personality Types

Personality is defined, from a psychological point of view, as a collection of behaviors that are exhibited to others in the form of patterns. It is widely believed that personality types are not changeable. Individuals are born with a specific temperament and usually a person exhibits these traits throughout their lifetime. For our purposes we believe entrepreneurs exhibit a dominant type in the way they create. These entrepreneurs, according to our viewpoint, share each type on some level. For now, the focus will be on the dominant type and the brilliance and blind spots associated with this representation.

Brilliance and Blind Spots

In creating and running our businesses, we have natural talents that at times reveal our brilliance. With this brilliance, also come our blind spots that are caused by our unconscious patterns or temperament.  Neither type is superior to the other. Each dominant type has both opportunities to display their brilliance and they will also reveal their blind spots. Our main goal is to help entrepreneurs become aware of what makes them brilliant and encourage them to put their energy and focus into those areas. We’re also aware of how important it is to be conscious of our blind spots so we can create a plan to manage and regulate these less developed traits. This plan does not include becoming an expert in all of our various weaknesses.

It Takes a Team

The biggest value of the EPT™ is that with this deeper understanding of oneself and personality, it will become easier to distinguish whom individuals need around them. It is common for entrepreneurs to engage co-founders who are similar to them. If for example, a person has three highly technical architects as the only employees in their business, they are going to have many plans and concepts to build and no one to build them.  Each architect will try, however to manifest these plans, but it’s not in their nature to truly do so successfully. The original founder would have been better off finding a Builder type as a co-founder and hiring the others after they had created some initial success. This profile assessment will also allow individuals to own their own brilliance and to hire or outsource around their areas of weakness. If a person is the Dreamer and has the desires to dream up amazing concepts then they should spend a good portion of their time following that dream. They will be happier, their company will be more valuable and their business will be more successful.