I’m teaching an entrepreneurship class right now to University students on a performing arts degree course. There’s 19 of them in the class and they’re all in their early to mid-20’s.
They’re bright, conscientious, and sparky.
Some are goofy and loud and extroverted. Their personalities shine through, they love to talk up in class and getting up in front of the group to do an ‘elevator pitch’ is well within their comfort zone.
There are others who are much more thoughtful and quiet and introverted. Sometimes they wait until others have spoken before they pipe up and share their thoughts. And the elevator pitch was a bit tougher for them.
But they all did it. The extroverts had to practice reining themselves in, sticking to the key points they wanted to cover and not going off on tangents or riffing on ideas.
The introverts benefitted from working out in advance what they wanted to say, relying on a structure, and practice.
But that’s just one exercise. And really only represents one skill area in being an entrepreneur.
Our assignment now is to do a cash flow and budgeting exercise. I haven’t marked them yet, but my expectation is the introverts may exceed in this exercise. They are often more detail orientated. They are reflective, so writing down their spending comes more naturally to them. And sitting quietly and working out an annual budget for the year ahead might be something that is easier to do for them.
Of course these are overly-simplistic categories. Like any scale most people are a mixture of both, and it is also dependent on lots of other factors like setting, mood, how confident we are feeling, etc. However, as an introvert myself, I know that I tend to prefer to read a book by myself in the corner than enter a room of strangers and network. And I know some extrovert friends who would much sooner go to a party and chat with people than sit in the corner and read a book. So we all have different strengths.
The problem with entrepreneurship or business is we too often just assume that the extrovert has an advantage and the introvert has a disadvantage.
But I’m not buying that.
This might be true in certain areas, like networking or pitching, but we need to consider the wider skill set required for business. Managing accounts, strategy, writing marketing copy (websites, emails) are just a few of the business activities that introverts might find are well within their comfort zone.
This presents two opportunities.
The first is the opportunity to learn, grow and stretch ourselves to take on the tasks that are not quite so natural to us.
And/or the other opportunity is to look for ways we can outsource the things that are not our strengths to other people.
In a start-up situation, we probably have to do it all. But any money generated might wisely be plowed into seeking help in the areas that are outside of your strengths.
We have the capacity to do much more than we think we do.
Challenging ourselves to take on other tasks can develop and stretch us in ways that are rewarding.
But that doesn’t negate the fact that we can always ask for help or hire out tasks that don’t feel good to us.
At my yoga class the teacher often gives several options for an asana/posture and she says ‘Yogi’s choice’.
That resonates with me in a business environment too.
Want to stretch yourself and develop abilities in areas that feel a bit uncomfortable? Great! There’s lots of help available to figure out.
Want to hand off those activities that are outside of your strengths and focus on what you do best? Great! There’s lots of available help.
The key is to make a choice. ‘Entrepreneur’s choice’.
This is true for extroverts. Introverts. Ambiverts. Or those who don’t want to be categorized!
If it feels good, do it. If it doesn’t feel good, but you want to stretch into it, do it. Don’t want to do it? That’s ok too. It’s your choice.
Embrace the agency of that. It’s your business. It’s your choice.
Great stuff, Steve! You’re exactly what this business —especially me — needs. Glad to see you’re thriving.
Well Professor Sparling: An interesting treatise on personality and business within the world of the entrepreneur. I was interested in your category, “Ambiverts”. This entirely new word (to me) is the first time I have been able to put a label on my own personality type.
You should consider writing about the types of clients to whom we are exposed during our careers. Can they too be categorized in the same manner…mirror images of the entrepreneurs who serve them? During my rather lengthy career, I believe I have served them all; from the raging egoist to the deadly narcissist; from the hateful, jealous dweeb to the friendly, outgoing ‘hail-fellow-well-met’ type.
As you have experienced, learning to handle clients can be the difference between hellish angst, and successful navigation. Relationships between clients and I were a major key to my longevity in a business that eats up writers, art directors, creative directors and commercial film directors on a far too regular basis. Often, I found, the reason for a brief cameo appearance lay in how artful the creative entrepreneur. Back in the days of your youth, a particular executive producer loathed me when I worked in the Great White Elephant studio in (dare I say it?) Edmonton. It prevented him from earning greater profits from his in-house director, a man of only adequate skill and almost wholly devoid of creative thinking. Indeed he (the producer) did everything within his power to sabotage my sets, talent and crews. My tactic for handling this particularly unpleasant situation with one of my major clients was to invite this producer to dinner at the MacDonald, where I regaled he and his wife with amusing stories and lavished praise on this producer before his wife. (I also got him a tad drunk – his wife drove them home, I recall) I could and probably should feel ashamed of myself because my compliments were entirely false. However, from that day forward, this once irritating man arrived on set the bubbling with enthusiasm for my design requirements and somewhat lavish requests for camera lenses and lighting demands. I even got one of two periscope lenses flown in from Vancouver. The point being, the proper handling of one’s bosses or clients or executive producers is paramount to creating a happy set, a happy crew and a happy me. Creative is a business, with its own peculiar requirements. Incidentally, that is not a terribly profound observation. All vocations and professions demand creativity in one form or another. However, when you ARE the business, spending some time on your own public relations is essential to both a successful project and the likelihood of being hired more than once. There are, I caution, limits to one’s ability to overcome a problematic client (boss). It’s worth the try, but I have had occasion to refuse to work for certain clients along the way. If they disturb your moral or ethical integrity, no amount of money will compensate. A course however on personal public relations as a creative entrepreneur would not go amiss. Hope these comments make sense. Being amorphous (not immoral) did help me build return-business. Ingenuous ingenuity can sometimes be helpful.