Are you an ENTP and wonder why you can't get things done when working for yourself?

[moe237]

This is really cool. I did the test and came out to be an ENFP-T but this explains so much more than I could have imagined. I have actually started businesses and stopped working on them because of boredom. I learned from that and started two successful businesses but explicitly hired day-to-day staff to remove myself from the equation. It has been a TON better as I get to use my time the way I want to but now I am stressed because I have no bright ideas at the moment and it drives me nuts.

I really thought that I had some form of concentration problem. Your words ring true. But yeah, overall very interesting to know about oneself and use it to our advantage. It's tough though because I feel like I want to be able to just do mindless work for hours on end but I just get bored easily after a certain period.

 

[Philipp]

Thank you for this post. I really needed it right now.
In the last months I really saw it as a liability instead of an asset. But when I reflect now, I just noticed how fast and good work I did, when I was really interested and hyperfocused.

But I was just wondering how to mix the best of "both worlds". What I mean is, how to keep projects on track while I am not really interested in them. One solution might be to hire people. The only problem I see is that I might not be interested in managing them all the time..

What do you think about hiring people to fix your weaknesses?
Any experiences in managing people as a ENTP (or something like that)?

Thank you!

 

[LifeTransformer]

So after my post above, I decided to look deeper into what my results might mean, and I also read @eliquid's excellent thread too.

I picked up the book "INTP" which I think was mentioned either here or that thread. and have been giving it a thorough look.

But, I got to a point where something doesn't quite seem right. It said about INTPs loving order? I'm chaotic, and if INTP is indeed Einstein's type, he used to say something almost the complete opposite of Marie Kondo; “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” and seemed quite chaotic himself from what I can gather...

Maybe that's where the extra letter at the end of the 16 personalities differentiates?

It said about INTPs "eating to eat, not for the joy of eating" or something along them lines, wheras I am definitely not in that camp, I'm quite a foodie lol

I know these tests are not going to be 100% accurate, but something about that makes me question the typing, I have checked multiple times, I only switch between ENTP/INTP

Just wondering if anybody has any further insight who's deeper down the rabbit hole than myself?

 

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[Lee Wright]

Thanks Remi.

I'm an INTP & have found this so helpful. It explains a lot.

 

[Guest1413tpa]

Nice post. Not sure I am an ENTR but this resonates with me.

 

[Simon Angel]

34% INFP
26% INFJ
11% INTP
9% INTJ
6% ISFP

Fascinating...

You're all over the place. INFP has absolutely nothing to do with INFJ, nor does INTP with INTJ. Usually this is because people prefer to do these tests with what they think is the right answer or the way that they think they should be, yet who they actually are and their decision making is quite different.

We all aspire to better ourselves and are often fully aware of our flaws, but when taking these tests one must answer with a "What have I always been like?" mentality. How would your mother, girlfriend or best friend answer these questions? Looking back at your 20 year old self, would younger you have answered differently?

It does seem like you're an introvert though, so that leaves you with 4 possible dominant functions:

Fi - Introverted Feeling
Ni - Introverted Intuition
Ti - Introverted Thinking
Si - Introverted Sensing

Read up on each one to find out what your dominant function is, then it becomes pretty easy. It's safe to say you have low Si considering the answers you got are INFP (Fi dom), INFJ (Ni dom), INTP (Ti dom), INTJ (Ni dom again), ISFP (Fi dom again). Your likeliest dominant function according to your results (I suggest you take the test again and try to be really honest with yourself) is Introverted Feeling (Fi).

A couple quick questions:

Do you usually make your bed in the morning most days or do you tend to leave it as it were after getting up?

What's you reasoning for almost always/never making your bed?

What would your friends describe you as?

What does success look like to you? Imagine you've already made it. You have excess amounts of money and free time. What do you see yourself doing then?

 

[LifeTransformer]

Ho

It's not like MBTI and the enneagram are opposites, they go hand in hand.

An ENTP with enneagram 7 is the most common ENTP out there.

Fun fact: While MBTI (Jung) is all about your personality type and cognitive functions, which remain the same your whole life, the enneagram is mostly about your behaviour, attitude and mentality, which of course can and will change over time.

EDIT: Ignore that, I misremembered what my results were, 5 > 8 > 7 > 4 were my top results.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Wow! Despite your sacred arrogance, you must have deep insecurities/issues to reply like that just because someone disagrees, in a respectful way, with your binary view of the topic. Take care of yourself.

P.S.: Reported.

Well that does it then. The Fi is very clear to me now. The overreaction and "P.S" sealed the deal.

You're an INFP for sure, there's no doubt in my mind.

Have a great day!

 

[Simon Angel]

That rings true as something I do often. I find it hard to make a stance and take a "side" on controversial topics. I find valid arguments and conflicts in both as soon as I try to learn more. A ton of questions of the tests are "well yes, but there's a lot of exceptions to that" "well no, but what's the context?" Like "You find your time alone more interesting and satisfying than with people" Well, is it a group of strangers, acquaintances or my best friend or my boyfriend? What am I supposed to pick? Both are true. Everything is valid. I love being alone, in silence, at home, at peace, and yet I've been director on the Chicago UN board, attended a ton of network events, and even gave a talk in DC at a leadership conference and went knocking on the door of IL senators. If you put me on the stage, I'll perform. I might need a week to recover but I'll summon my inner extrovert as much as I can. It's draining though, that's why I'm an I 100%. But the other functions.. not so easy.

I've never dug deep into the functions because I really can't handle that much data... the big picture already gave me enough insight. Guess I'm fine with being IN_ _ xD

The glorified horoscope is kinda true. It feels like the same kind of mental masturbation when reading my cancer descriptions. It's more like a guilty pleasure rather than something I take very seriously


P.S. I keep editing this post because I keep coming up with things to say. Then editing it to make it more readable. Then adding again. Lmao

Yeah, definitely an xNTP. Consider ENTP as what you described would be equally draining for me as well.

Have you done the cognitive functions test I shared? It's very straightforward and accurate:

John's Personality Test

 

[BellaPippin]

Yeah, definitely an xNTP. Consider ENTP as what you described would be equally draining for me as well.

Have you done the cognitive functions test I shared? It's very straightforward and accurate:

John's Personality Test

Uhhhh I don't know about this...

 

[Simon Angel]

View attachment 34852

Well F*ck, I don't believe this though

Woah, me neither. Did you try to answer like you would if you were around 20 years of age, OR from the perspective of your mother, boyfriend, etc. Try to be as unbiased as you can be. Also, do not answer the "correct" way, but "your way".

INTJ is in fact ENTP's shadow and vice versa, with INTJ having Ni Te Fi Se and ENTP having Ne Ti Fe si, same order of intuition > thinking > feeling > sensing but mirrored functions. It is a common mistype and one that I've fallen for as well!

Try doing the test with your mother or boyfriend and ask them what you should reply with and you'll probably get your accurate type!

 

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[BellaPippin]

Woah, me neither. Did you try to answer like you would if you were around 20 years of age, OR from the perspective of your mother, boyfriend, etc. Try to be as unbiased as you can be. Also, do not answer the "correct" way, but "your way".

INTJ is in fact ENTP's shadow and vice versa, with INTJ having Ni Te Fi Se and ENTP having Ne Ti Fe si, same order of intuition > thinking > feeling > sensing but mirrored functions. It is a common mistype and one that I've fallen for as well!

Try doing the test with your mother or boyfriend and ask them what you should reply with and you'll probably get your accurate type!

He actually helped me on a few because I was like "but what is the context tho!" which is my biggest issue with every question. I'm answering as honestly as I can, but the answer depends on what context I give it, let me try again, now I'm more curious.

 

[Remiremi]

I am so impressed by this.

As a fellow ENTP i have so much knowledge on different subjects but it is usually at a level that makes me look smart rather then have a deep enough understanding to take actions i want to take.

The deeper knowledge comes from action > trial > error > action.

I was organically trying to utilise what you say about building something based on your exploration since coronavirus hit and I had a lot more time.

This really cements the idea for me.

Not sure if you mentioned it but similar to blogging, you can also do youtube videos explaining what you have learnt, that is something i am looking to do once I have finished my current project.

Thank you.

Really glad I help!

As for youtube absolutely!

Actually I have started warming up to the idea, for example here I chose to record a YT video rather than write a long post: Here's the post I'm referring to

So many options it's thrilling

 

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[BellaPippin]

The more test you do the more confusing it becomes hahaha.

I can see that, omg! The whole INTP still rings true to my behaviors though, as in, your original post xD

 

[DrScream]

It's going to be a work in progress your whole life. Also, because of the 7th slot Fi you're probably going to continue questioning your type for a long time. Ironically this further cements the Ne + Ti.

You likely won't ever be as organized as a Dominant/Auxiliary Si type and thank god for that. Their desire for order, doing things "the way they should be done" and consumerist mindset borders insanity. But according to them we're the crazy weirdos.

You know what makes us less insane than them? We can actually see through their narrow-minded, lateral way of thinking and realize that in their reality they're 100% right. On the other hand though I've never seen an Si dom/aux truly understand we're wired differently. To them, there's only one way of doing things - "the right way" or "the way everyone does it". Philosophy is "a waste of time" and talking about the vastness of the Universe, its laws and metaphysics makes their brains fry like the ending scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

You sound like a CS.Joseph Shill XD

-fellow ENTP

 

[LifeTransformer]

https://preview.redd.it/34zohbwcwfs51.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=e42716f2737bfccabe282839118660cbcb285e4f

Found this in a reddit sub, basically my struggle so far. Won't give up though.

 

[Simon Angel]

I don't really believe in MBTI but I have ADD apparently and I'm always missing deadlines, etc. because I just end up following my curiosity from one thing to another, so this is super helpful and empowering—thank you so much!

ENFP or INFP.

 

[Remiremi]

I’m just floored by this. Absolutely amazing! Perfect breakdown of exactly how I’m wired. I wish I could give this a million likes. I truly appreciate the insight and the mitigation tips. Lifesaver. Thank you so much for posting this.

And so happy to have helped you too

 

[Cojo]

Hello friends, are you an ENTP? Are you struggling with finishing things? Are you wondering why you can't seem to follow the monk-like discipline you crave so much?

This post is for you. (ps: This post may also apply to INTP, INFP, and ENFP, but it's not guaranteed. It has been primarily written for my fellow ENTP in mind.)

If you are a bit like me, and you probably are, you admire people of the ENTJ or INTJ types. The Elon Musks, the smart lads with the incredible power of execution.

They decide to do something and they just do it.

And you want that power, you want to be awesome at execution...

You have so many ideas (that you believe are amazing and revolutionary) if you concretize those ideas you will be on top of the world, don't you?

But when you start to work on them on your own, as a side-project or a business, your work ethic is gone, nowhere to be seen.

That's weird because you have an incredible work ethic everywhere else, be it at your job or in a team. You are always craving to learn more and become better. You always produce top-grade stuff and you are relentless. You are proud of this. And people agree with that statement.

You then, think you can make it out on your own, as skillful as you are, it would be a shame not to try.

But when you take the leap, you come to quickly realize, it's gonna be hard than expected.

First obstacle? Yourself.

You just can't seem to do what you know needs to be done.

You face a procrastination level more intense than anything you've never met in your life. Except maybe for that time you wanted to confess your love to your crush as a teenager.

You need to understand you are not a cold-blooded strategist that will follow a plan to completion.

You must understand this: You are an explorer! You go where your interest leads you. And when you are motivated by a will to explore your curiosity, YOU ARE UNSTOPPABLE.

The other side of the coin says, when you are disinterested in the tasks at hand, you feel bored as hell and will probably find a way to escape from doing the tasks at hand.

Your driving force is not the perspective of making shit loads of cash, neither it is the perspective of freedom, and sorry to break it to you, your driving force is not your desire to change the world for the better.

Your driving force is your curiosity. This is your motor.

With curiosity, you are a tsunami. Nothing will get in the way of the answer you seek.

Without curiosity, you are very good at finding excuses to not do what bores you out.

Why does it matter?

It matters because you will probably do the following mistake...

You will decide on a goal and following contemporary advice decide to make it S.M.A.R.T. Which basically means realistic with an arbitrary deadline.

Your strategizing mind will help you devise a sound plan of action, and your knack for creativity help you discerned a way you can even kill two birds with one stone.

You talk about it with whoever might be willing to listen and you feel on top of the world.

The first day? You are killing it. The second day? You are killing it.

The third day, you get sidetracked...

One month later? You haven't even achieved 10% of what you set out to do.

You were supposed to be able to do it in three months by focusing intensely.

Now, this seem very compromised. You feel miserable and guilty. You wonder if you are any good at anything.

This scenario keeps happening again, again, and again... Until you give up or you stumble upon the truth.

Let's give a closer look at your primary hypothesis.

So you were thinking you can do it in just three months by focusing intensely?

Well good news, you were half right.

You can do it...

...But not in three months.

Why?

Because even though you can focus intensely consistently on the subject you are curious about.

You can't stay curious about the same subject consistently.

So your curiosity will lead you to places you can't predict.

You just know one thing for sure, if you were interested in something one day, you will be interested in that thing again. You just can't predict when.

You will actually bring that project to completion effortlessly, but not in the shortest time possible.

Instead of the three months, you estimated, it will likely be six to nine months.

And that's ok, because that won't be the only thing you have done in those six to nine months.

You have an unprecedented capacity for multithreading, you just can't allocate all your threads to one project. It must be different projects. This is how you are.

If you are curious about something, you will want to drop the ball on your current project to satisfy your curiosity. And you must do it.

But every time you follow your curiosity you must find a way to get away with more than just knowledge.

Unused knowledge is ephemeral, vanishing as swiftly as it was acquired.

You must build something from the fruit of your recently acquired knowledge that will stand the test of time and bring you a small but lasting advantage.

It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be there.

THE KEY THING TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS: You must shift from a consumer to a producer.

You must start producing stuff. Start businesses, start a blog, do everything you want, but DO. (keyword do, not just read about/learn about etc....)

It's normal for you to getting informed about something you are interested in, but you need to act on it. You must build something out of it. You must share it with the world.

You must create things and release them in the world. I REPEAT. You must create things and release them in the word.

You don't have to follow a great mastermind plan, you don't have to follow a routine or fixed planning. You don't have to torture yourself to heck out every last bit of productivity there's inside you.

You just need to listen to yourself and follow your curiosity. And to do it everyday.

Your strength is the speed at which you can pivot.

You can change your mind and start working on something different than what you were doing, at full speed, and immediately.

You can survey a complicated question an bring back multiple possible answers at the speed of light.

You are impulsive and adaptable. You can do anything you want because you will always find a way... As long as you are interested.

This surges of productivity come at a cost. Your interest in a particular thing has a very short shelf-life. One to two days top. Sometimes it's less than a couple of hours.

If you don't catch the wave of curiosity, it's gone, and sometimes it's gone for several weeks or months.

So expecting yourself to work on the same project, without interruptions every day for three months in a row? ... You are being oblivious to your own nature, my friend.

You probably know that by now, the biggest predictor of entrepreneurial success is consistency.

Then how can you expect success if you can't stay on track and schedule for more than two weeks?

You need to build a different kind of consistency than a rigid routine and prison-like tight schedules.

You need to play on your strength: Explore and Exploit ASAP.

Don't explore something without bringing back a treasure from your adventure.

Examples:

• You were curious about nutrition and muscle-growth gym regimen? You binge-learned every possible way to do it (instead of doing your job lol). You just acquired way too much knowledge to expect yourself to remember it a week from now. So applying it consistently? Out of your league.
  The solution? Swiftly assemble a training and nutrition guide based on what you just explored, package it in a nice PDF, and then share it with the world. You can decide to monetize it or just to share it for free on a forum, it doesn't matter. It will help some people, and that's good for your karma. Second benefit, the day you will want to actually go to the gym, you can just follow your own guideline. Two birds, one stone.
• You are learning Python and discover the weird world of Decorators and Closures. This stuff is basically out of your league and at your level you will probably never use it. But you can't shake off the feeling. You start binging and learning mystical stuff. Before you go back to the real world to what will actually move you forward in the grand scheme of things, put on together in one shot a blog post that you will publish on Medium behind the paywall. Boom! Three birds, one stone: Personal Branding & Portfolio : check; a very slim source of additional passive income: check; a quick way to retrieve your long-lost knowledge about closures when you finally need it, three years from now: check.
• Well you see the idea, indulge your instinct and before the honeymoon ends, build something that will last. In this way, you will shift from an inconsistent being to a prolific and polymath builder. You will shift from consumer to producer.

So by now, if you are an ENTP, you are probably envisioning what I am talking about.

I want to add a couple of other points... Playing on your strength also means you need to mitigate your weakness.

Your strength and weaknesses are two faces of the same coin. You can't get one without the other.

During my short time on earth as an entrepreneurial ENTP, I have summarized below everything I know about mitigating our innate weaknesses.








Weakness mitigation tips #1: You can only respect HARD DEADLINES.

There's two kind of deadlines: HARD deadlines and SOFT deadlines.

HARD deadlines are deadlines you must respect. When you are under hard deadlines, you work like crazy to respect them. Those are often imposed by a promise or the external environment. Hard Deadlines are why you have so much work ethic when you work for somebody else.

SOFT deadlines are deadlines you don't have obligation to respect. Basically they are deadlines you can bullshit yourselves out of easily. Often those are arbitrary and self-imposed, for example, SMART Goals. Soft deadlines are why you have so few work ethic when you work for yourself.

The litmus test is simple, "Can I find a way to not respect that deadline?".
If you start generating a thousand ideas about how to do so, then it's a soft deadline and this deadline means nothing to you and will bring you nothing. (except guilt)

So you being too clever may start to think? "Oh, gotcha I just need to change every deadline into a HARD deadline".

NO! Don't do this. The only way to do this is to take risks and to put yourself at a disadvantage. You are basically gambling on yourself just to create the pressure necessary to do the work. This is a horrible way to live your life.

(ex of this destructive behavior: Damaging relationships just to be sure you will do something. Wasting all your money to let the pressure of feeding your family let you work like crazy, etc...)

As an ENTP what you crave is freedom, this way of proceeding (a.k.a. burn your bridges) is the polar opposite of freedom. It will make you feel miserable and burn you out, also it sucks because you are destructing what you build to build more. This is terrible. Don't do it.

Just understand that soft deadlines mean nothing to you and plan accordingly.

Don't gamble on a deadline you can bullshit yourself out of.

Soft deadlines are a distraction to you, those are noise. SMART goals stuff like that, forget those, they don't work with you.

But also, don't take on too many hard deadlines at the same time.

Those hard deadlines are like prison chains to you. And what you crave is freedom.

If you enchain yourself too much, you will burnout.

This leave the question. How an ENTP can get stuff done?

Weakness Mitigation tip #2: Boredom is like a steel wall to you. You can't get through it and have to wait for the door of curiosity to open.

So what should I do? The ENTP equivalent of taking massive actions.

You must play to your strength and mitigate your weakness.

Follow your curiosity and build something from your exploration. Build it quickly, in a couple of hours or max. You must build it before your curiosity wither.

Understand that boredom is your limit. You can only go through boredom excruciatingly. This is your hard deadline for every project, you must finish the milestone before boredom takes you and your curiosity wants to go somewhere else.

A quick note about perfection?
What you build must never be perfect. Perfection is your enemy, it makes you anxious and buries you in analysis paralysis. (= you don't do shit and feel shitty about it)

What should I do when I am bored with a project and want to do something else?

You must stop and do something else. You will get back to the project eventually if you were interested once, you will be interested twice.

Weakness Mitigation tip #3: Don't make plans more detailed than a rough outline.

A detailed and carefully crafted plan is wasted on you... You will never follow it through.

Don't spend time creating detailed stratagems to get to your goals. THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME, DO SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD.

You are tactical and agile. The time horizon you can plan on is limited to a couple of hours. It's very short.

For the long term, you can guess how things are gonna roughly. Your intuition power is often on point.

It's even more powerful when you feed your intuition with data. How do you get your data?

Every time you want to plan your future, turn to your past instead and log what you have been doing in the last few days.

You want to empirically determine your speed of production. Take the time to keep track of what you did during the day.

You can use this basic template:

Questions to gather data about your explorations:
1. What have I been interested in the last few day?
2. How did I go about exploring that interests?
3. What did I get out of it?
4. How long did it took?
5. What have I build-out of what I discovered? How have I used it?
6. How long did it took?
7. Is there thing I can do better next time? Things I need to avoid next time?

Answer those questions every two to three days. (Optimally, every time you finish a cycle of Exploration / Exploitation)

Store those answers in a way you can easily access those later. (Don't just write on a spare napkin and throw it away).

Weakness Mitigation tip # 4: Don't try to follow a perfect routine.

In the same way, hard deadlines are a chain to you, trying to respect arbitrary daily planning will lower your available energy for the day.

Instead, have a shortlist of 5 mandatory items you must do during the day and that you can do quickly.

If you can't cross every item of that list in less than 100 minutes, the list is too long.

An example can be:

• Meditate 10 minutes.
• Walk the dog.
• Do the dishes.
• Quick workout at the gym.
• Write in my journal.

Sometimes you will meditate in the morning, sometimes before you go to bed, sometimes during the commute. Doesn't matter, you need the flexibility to do things when you are ready for those.

What matters is that you crossed every item of the list, not when you crossed those.

The rest of the day, follow your curiosity relentlessly and get something out of it.

Weakness Mitigation tip #5: Keep your Anxiety in check... It keeps your from entering a Flow state.

First of all, You must strive to get into Flow. Getting into flow every day is your bread and butter as an ENTP.

Though there's one thing that can keep you from entering a Flow state even if you are well rested, in good health, and will push you to immediate-rewards behavior.(ex:... alcohol, infinite scrolling, eating way too much sugar, gambling, buying spree, opening 200+ tabs on your web browser about a shitty subject you don't even care about)

This thing is Anxiety.

You must learn to effectively manage your anxiety level. Because when highly stressed and without a hard deadline, you are basically dysfunctional and will get nothing done.
(Please remember that high-stress level and hard pressure to get things done is a miserable way to live your life. It's okay once in a while but don't abuse it.)

So do things that help you rest and recover. Make a conscious effort to recover and balance your innate restlessness.
Examples:
- Sport you genuinely enjoy
- Meditation
- Light encounter with your social circle
- Playing games
- Read books unrelated to your goals. (fiction, or history)
- Get a massage.
- Dance, Concert, Restaurant
- Journaling, gratitudes etc...

Weakness Mitigation tip #6: Inject a bit of order in your life.

Then, because you are so future and possibly oriented you need help to organize things that happened in your past.

• Some of us are a mess when it comes to meetings and time constraints or remembering special events like birthdays. ⇒ Get a calendar, note everything inside, check it often.
• Your life memory is foggy at best and can't remember specifics even if you try hard, it often means you are totally wrong about your achievements and efforts (often wrongly believe you never did anything right) ⇒ Spend time every day to journal about your life, log your decisions and log your achievements. Include specifics like mood, time spent on task etc... When in doubt about what you have been doing, you can read those logs to help you access data you would have forget otherwise.
• Revisiting your life is very difficult for you as you get immediately distracted. If you believe you have a trauma from your childhood (and most people have) ⇒ Consider going to a psychologist who will guide you through the fumes of your past.
• You want a boost of productivity and increase your odds of success in the short term. ⇒ Get an accountability coach that will help you add some order in your life. (Getting a coach is one of the ways to help you achieve soft deadlines you would not be able to honor otherwise), it also helps you clarify and be more surgical about your focus.
• You forget the things your family / entourage needs you to do (do the laundry, send wishes for birthday etc...)

Weakness Mitigation tip #7: Become more aware of your mind, thoughts and body.

You must strive to be aware of your mental state, to identify when you start to get bored and must finish asap or to identify when you are curious about something.

The best way to do so is to practice mindfulness meditation (yes seriously) and to do sports that demand to be aware of the mind-body connection.

This will help you be more tuned toward your sensations and thoughts. Which is key to live a more fluid and free life.

Weakness Mitigation tip #8: GET RID OF YOUR PHONE / SOCIAL MEDIA
Phones are engineered to suck your attention away from whatever your doing. Your attention is a raw resource they monetize.

As an ENTP you are curious and novelty-seeker, and you are very competent at indulging your curiosity for hours on end.

Attention vampires have access to brilliant minds that they pay a lot to spend their day engineering way to suck your attention for the sake of ad profits.

Against a phone, you are at the bottom of the food chain.

PHONES ARE YOUR NATURAL ENEMY.

Possible solutions to mitigate the damage from your phone:
- Destroy it.
- Use apps blocker like STAY-FOCUSED (android)
- Use phone blocker like FOREST. (ps: it doubles as a Pomodoro app, and is gamified which makes you less likely to bypass it, you sly fox)
- Use a way to track and realize how much time you waste on your phone, like STAY-FOCUSED. (prepare to be shocked)
- Change the color of your phone in grey-scale or invert white/black, attention vampires use flashy colors to suck you in, you can fight that by getting rid of colors.
How to do it with iPhone here, and how to do it with Android here.
- Destroy it.
- Buy a NOKIA 3310, a hand-held GPS, a vintage MP3 player, a nice watch, and a paper agenda. If you think about it, everybody has a phone so you don't really need one, as you can just ask to borrow the functionality you lack.

I repeat. GET RID OF YOUR PHONE. Thank me later.

Weakness Mitigation tip #9: You don't do well in a pond of sharks, you need a supportive and encouraging environment.

You are trusting and willing to see the best face of everyone you meet. You want to collaborate and share your knowledge.

You are good in a team and with people, especially when you can assume everybody is on the same side.

You want to trust people, and you usually demonstrate trust first. Keep doing that, it's one of your competitive edges.

But a word of caution, trusting people first doesn't mean people should be safe double-crossing you.

Of course, some foe will want to abuse your willingness to help.

If somebody abuses your trusting identity YOU MUST RETALIATE. I am serious.

You will know when somebody abuses your kindness. Your Machiavellian side will know immediately. DON'T MAKE EXCUSES FOR THE VILLAINS.

THEY CROSS YOU, YOU CROSS THEM. PERIOD.

ONCE YOU HAVE DEMONSTRATED YOU CAN BITE AS WELL AS YOU CAN SMILE and both sides are bleeding, YOU CAN THEN SHOW FORGIVENESS.

AFTER ALL, YOU DON'T LIKE CONFLICT.

This assumes that you are evolving in an environment where people willing to screw you are an anomaly, and most people are on your side.

If you realize that people wanting to screw you over are the norm, then you are in a pond of shark AND YOU MUST RUNAWAY ASAP.

Let the evil political game and the House of Cards vibe for the people who thrive in those corrosive environments.

This is not you.

You will thrive more in a group that is trusting and encouraging, united in a common cause.

The fact that you have a developed Machiavellian mind doesn't mean you must use it at 100%.

If people around you are mean, calculating, or vain. Leave, without looking back.

Weakness Mitigation tip #10: Don't bet on speed. Build an advantage for the long game instead.

Because, when you start out as an ENTP, you will never be the first to arrive somewhere... (When you will become an experienced ENTP, this will change, as your tactical velocity will be unheard of, but when you start, well... You are not the fastest.)
... You must not pick your battles based on rewards correlated with a short time to arrival... (Example, you are starting out with dropshipping, you see everybody is going for fidget spinners. Don't go for it, you will arrive after the battle.)
... Instead, You must pick your battle based on long term compounded rewards. (Example, learning skills that are difficult and valuable to master. Code, Copywriting, Writing, Consulting.)

Then once you start to have an edge that is difficult to replicate...(Example; you are a blockchain enthusiast, but you probably know things more in-depth than most of the other blockchain enthusiasts.)
... Pick a battle that will complement it and that triggers your curiosity (Example, starting a blog about blockchain + learning how to do first-class SEO).

Even though everybody was faster than you in the short run... (Example, your accountability partner Tom became a millionaire just in two years, and you were still in your parent basement)
... On the long run, you will establish a valuable strategic advantage that is hard for anybody else to replicate. (Example: Five years later, your Blockchain blog is ranked first on google and is monetized with ads, You keep getting people asking you to interview you and you started a consulting business about blockchain. You never made that much money in your life and you now have a strong network. You basically do what you want, when you want, with who you want, from anywhere you want.).




....


Alright I am getting bored, just one last thing before we go...

TLDR: implement the code written below in your daily life. It will do the trick, I know you will figure out the specifics on your own.

ENTP?

Be Patient and Restless

⬪

You must be patient in the long term.

You will get where you want.

But you won't get there in the shortest amount of time possible.

Because you will take so many detours.

So be patient.

⬪

You must be restless in the sort term.

Want to explore an option, fine, do it.

Go all the way.

Unleash your curiosity.

... But you must make a pact with yourself.

Every time you unleash your curiosity, you must build a memento and share it with the world.

A simple recipe...

1/ Explore until bored.

2/ Quickly build something valuable for others.

3/ Share it to the people who most need it.

You are an explorer and every time you go on an adventure, you bring back wonderful treasures, undiscovered before.

Promise yourself you won't keep those treasures to yourself and will share those with the world.

Once your oath is taken, go.

Explore.

Follow your curiosity relentlessly.

Everyday.

You are free now.

⬪

​

BONUS:

What does it look like when you are not playing to your strength and mitigating your weakness?:

You are doing something, let's call it interest A. You begin to be interested in interest B.
You decide to keep doing interest A.
You slowly get bored and pick up your phone.
Five hours later, you haven't finished working on interest A.
You feel guilty and have trouble falling asleep this evening.
You wake up, lethargic, it takes you four hours before finally getting to work on interest A.
It's excruciatingly boring but you manage to finish it. You begin to be interested in interest C.
You repress it and start working on interest B.
And so on and so on....

It feels like an uphill battle.

Also, it's depressing because you know your current velocity of execution is nowhere near your actual potential...

What does it look like when you play to your strength and mitigate your weaknesses?

You are doing something, let's call it interest A. You begin to be interested in interest B.

You switch your focus on interest B.
Five hours later you know everything you could know about interest B. You are still hungry for more.
You decide to produce something about your discovery. (for the sake of example and to give you an idea of what it could be, let's say it's an article you will put on medium behind the paywall and you include a bait to your newsletter.)
Three hours later you are done with the building phase, you share it with the world and go to bed.
You feel good and sleep well.
You wake up, early in the morning, your interest for interest A is back and you feel the urge to do something about it.
You jump out of bed and start working asap, forgetting breakfast. By noon you are done with interest A.
You begin to be interested in interest C. You start working immediately on interest C.
And so on and so on.

You are prolific and restless. Your cumulative speed of production is unheard of. You are proud of you.

Could you have been done with interest A sooner if you had double down on it? No. You can't get away with boredom. This is your limit.

This is why you need to be patient. You are like a wind vane, you keep turning. So you will get there. You just won't get there by the shortest path.

This is why you need to be restless. Because you have to take the detour and answer the calling of your curiosity, you have to move as fast as possible, or you will never finish anything.


....


Hope it helps,

Rémi

P.S.: Btw, from my slim understanding of typology, this can maybe apply also to INFP, ENFP, and INTP.

Great advice here. I have a plan to make $10,000 per month in the next 3 months but i am afraid I would get sidetracked.
How do you think i should stay focus on my goal.

 

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[Cojo]

You will get sidetracked.

STOP aiming to do it WITH HIGH PROBABILITY OF FAILURE in three months.

START aiming to do it WITH 100% PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS in eighteen months.

I don't know about that. I do usually get new ideas to work on but I always put this one first.
Its not that I actually get sidetracked, I just start procrastinating and do nothing.

 

[Cojo]

ENFP or INFP.

Hey Simon. I took John's personality test and I got Entp but now I took it again and got Intp

 

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[Cojo]

I don't know about that. I do usually get new ideas to work on but I always put this one first.
Its not that I actually get sidetracked, I just start procrastinating and do nothing.

 

[Simon Angel]

Hey Simon. I took John's personality test and I got Entp but now I took it again and got Intp

It would be difficult to assess your type from just a few short sentences.

 

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[Cojo]

That's the same, you do nothing because the goal is too big to be reached with certainty. So you can't trick yourself into working. Indeed, why work hard and fail anyway.

Thus my answer


It's up to you.

You can decide to disregard my advice and try to do it in three months anyway.

But you will tart procrastinating and do nothing (your prediction)​

Then try again for the next three months...

But start procrastinating and do nothing.​

Then try again for the next three months...

But start procrastinating and do nothing.​

Then try again for the next three months...
Then try again for the next three months...
Then try again for the next three months...


OR.

You can decide you will do in eighteen months WITH 100% SUCCESS RATE, avoid burning yourself with a self imposed bullshit deadline and MAKE PROGRESS EVERYDAY.

I've been there. I tried to succeed in the next three months for three years.

What will you choose?

I understand what you are saying but I really need to achieve this goal in the next 3 to 9 months because I live in a 3rd world country and I want to further my studies in the US. I am a web designer by the way and I am following @Fox advice on how to scale that high.
So don't you think 18 months is too much

 

[Cojo]

It would be difficult to assess your type from just a few short sentences.

This was the first test I did with John's personality test, I got Entp

This is the 2nd test result -

I tried the idrlabs, Typologycentral and Michael Caloz test an got Intj instead.

 

[Simon Angel]

This was the first test I did with John's personality test, I got Entp

This is the 2nd test result -
View attachment 38221
I tried the idrlabs, Typologycentral and Michael Caloz test an got Intj instead.

Which type description do you relate most with? Start with INTP and INTJ. I'm inclined to believe you're not an extroverted type.

 

[Cojo]

Then my advice is to aim for achieving it in 9 months not 3.

Find for yourself how you can do it with certainty in the next nine months.
And then PROMISE YOURSELF TO MAKE SMALL PROGRESS DAILY.


This is my advice, good luck

I have a question. Why are they few successful or billionaire ENTPs while INTPs have Bill Gates, Larry Page etc.

 

[Cleaningup]

INTJ here. Just own yourself. Develop some Te. Forget about Fi or Fe for a while

 

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[Cojo]

Ahh. Yep, sounds pretty ENTP.

So, I am an ENTP?

 

[eliquid]

I agree with most of what you said, but there's a huge difference between INTP and INTJ. Look up cognitive functions, especially being a Ti dominant (INTP) vs Ni dominant (INTJ).

Here's a few questions for you:

Were you late to school? Are you often late now?

Prefer or better at strategy games that involve planning and foreseeing or MOBAs/shooters who are fast paced and involve a lot of mechanical/tactical skill rather than strategical?

Have known since you were little what you wanted to achieve in life and have been shaping your whole life starting back from when you were a kid towards achieving it?

Secretly believe that communism is better than capitalism?

See everyone as equal or as below/above you?

Do you think that you know a lot or do you think you don't know anything?

What personal qualities do you wish you had more of?

Are you sure you even exist? What proof do you have?

And last but not least, post the results you get from this test: John's Personality Test (pretty quick)

hey @Simon Angel , So I wanted to touch on a few of these... see what your thoughts were since you asked but I never responded to them until today.

1. Were you late to school? Are you often late now? - Never. Always on time or a bit early. I really dislike people who are late.

2. Prefer or better at strategy games that involve planning and foreseeing or MOBAs/shooters who are fast paced and involve a lot of mechanical/tactical skill rather than strategical? - I enjoy both, but I have to say I like shooters better for fun. If I were to be honest, I hardly play any games but I find myself drawn to shooters

3. Secretly believe that communism is better than capitalism? - No, capitalism is better

4. See everyone as equal or as below/above you? - Above or below me

5. Do you think that you know a lot or do you think you don't know anything? - I think I know a lot.

I think the next 2 could be bit of a ramble, so I left them off for now.

Will try to post the results of the test, but I typically like to take tests several times so might be a few days on that.

Can you tell anything from what I answered though when it comes to INTJ or INTP?

Thanks

 

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